Francesco Clemente. Three Rainbows

Francesco Clemente's new Three Rainbows project had a prolonged gestation; for years he had wanted to use watercolor and to paint rainbows, but only recently did the moment ripen. Three Rainbows began as three 60-foot long rainbow paintings--probably the largest watercolors ever made. For Clemente, whose attraction to given forms (such as the mandala) has long formed an integral part of his iconography, the rainbow suggests a number of important interpretations: it is a bridge (and therefore a structure that brings things together), a phenomenon that occurs after a period of darkness (Clemente's works of recent years had darkened noticeably) and a reversible image capable of leading the eye in opposite directions. The artist's affinity for watercolor derives in part from the medium's immediacy--an ideal vehicle for Allen Ginsberg's "first thought, best thought"--and these works betray his spontaneity and joy in making them.