Life Is a Paradise (French Edition)

Life Is Paradise is a gorgeous book, one that any Clemente aficionado would not want to be without. It includes a sensitive, smart essay by Vincent Katz, an illuminating interview with the artist, and nearly 100 very large, beautifully printed reproductions of Clemente's portraits in watercolor, oil, and dry media. As Katz writes, "One can wallow for days in these faces."

Lavishly produced and designed (with one egregious exception: in a series of watercolors the face of the subject falls within the "gutter," or centerfold, of the book, making it absolutely impossible to see), Life Is Paradise is divided into thematic chapters. Some rubrics--"Poets," "Oil on Wood," "Great Expectations," "Children," "Devi," "New York Muses," "Voices"--are literal: Robert Creeley and the late Allen Ginsberg are in the "Poets" section, for example. However, some are more wide-ranging: the watercolors include a vast selection of famous faces (as well as more poets, like John Ashbery). And the number of celebrities is staggering: Anne Bancroft, Gwyneth Paltrow, Toni Morrison, Fran Lebowitz, Philip Glass, and dozens of others. But it is the art that mesmerizes the reader. Some of Clemente's portraits are phenomenally precise and delicate; some are violent, dark, and wild; the eyes are always dominant; but all are "done" differently, seen differently, presented differently--masklike on one page, psychologically engaging on the next. Clemente's inventiveness--and this book represents only a small part of his vast output--can leave a reader breathless, wondering how many ways there are to approach the combination of a human countenance and a blank page. --Peggy Moorman