On October 29, Lévy Gorvy Dayan opened Francesco Clemente: Summer Love in the Fall, marking the venerated artist’s first exhibition at the gallery’s Beaux-Arts townhouse at 19 East 64th Street. Here, across multiple floors, Clemente debuted recent large-scale paintings in oil, watercolors, and frescoes, demonstrating his engagement with form and material—and melding artistic influences from India, West Africa, Egypt, and Italy to classical Greece and Rome. The subject of his new work is grounded in introspection and personal connection, echoing the expression penned by William Blake, “Love, the human form divine.”

Created during the warm and lush summer months, Clemente’s representations in oil of amorous love and the erotic impulse are intimate yet universal, addressing physical and emotional connection. His earthen, pared-down palette emphasizes metallic hues of gold and silver, while also referencing the pictorial traditions of the Italian trecento and Renaissance—the dry grays of Giotto and the cool greens of Fra Angelico. The paintings are populated with figurative iconography, including that of angels, and resonant themes of spirituality and sexuality.