Artist: Francesco Clemente

Lévy Gorvy Dayan presents Francesco Clemente’s Self-Portraits in the Bardo­—a significant series from his recent practice on view for the first time. In the eight vivid and visionary canvases on display, the artist fuses self-portraiture with an exploration of the imagery found in traditional Tibetan Buddhist representations of the bardo. The bardo is a central concept in Tibetan Buddhism, describing a liminal state of consciousness associated with the moment between death and rebirth. The awe-inspiring figures seen in Clemente’s paintings draw on the sacred peaceful and wrathful deities that inhabit this noncorporeal space—given life by Clemente in his vibrant compositions.

The history and texts of Tibetan Buddhism are important sources of inspiration for the artist. Since the 1970s, he has traveled extensively, particularly in India and Tibet, studying the regions’ literatures, cosmologies, and iconographies. The bardo is a crucial stage in the cycle of life for many Tibetan Buddhist schools. It describes the intermediate state between death and rebirth, and similar experiences of transition that may occur throughout life. Yet, just as the bardo offers the opportunity for enlightenment, it can also pose a danger to the unwary—with deities wielding power to both assist and confuse on the journey to the next life.

Clemente has said that “the bardo is a place in between lives, but the bardo is also a place in between affirmation[s] of being.” Recounting an experience he had at the age of nineteen, Clemente notes perceiving “a gap, an absolute emptiness” before the recurrence of “the simple feeling ‘I am’.” For the artist, the bardo, in this sense, is a fundamental part of experiencing life and identity. He has approached the idea throughout his oeuvre, most notably in his self-portraits, which he has described as “homage[s] to the bardo”—reflecting an idea of self that is not static but discontinuous and metamorphic.

In Self-Portraits in the Bardo, the themes of self-portraiture and the bardo are definitively brought together by the artist. On each canvas, Clemente creates a contrast between his grisaille self-portrait in the foreground and the richly hued space of the background. The deities of the bardo manifest in kaleidoscopic arrangements of form and color. Powerful and impressive in opulent tones of ochre, umber, orange, red, and pink, they occupy the space of the canvas, reminders of the sublime nature of enlightenment and mortality.

Self-Portraits in the Bardo reflects Clemente’s decades-long engagement with the idea of the bardo as an ancient model of conceiving life and death. The paintings revel in details, from the ornate attire of the deities to the small shifts in the artist’s facial expressions—the latter rendered in deft grisaille, a recurring technique in Clemente’s oeuvre. As celebrations of age-old desires for spiritual guidance and deliverance, these works are also expressions of contemporary life—its joys and difficulties—and testify to Clemente’s belief in art as a unique vehicle for insight and enlightenment.

Self-Portraits in the Bardo marks the gallery’s third solo presentation of Clemente in London, and the first in the new space at the Empress Club, 35 Dover Street. The exhibition will be accompanied by an essay by Sir Norman Rosenthal.