(continued)

Over the course of his fifty-plus years as a artist, the range of Clemmer’s work has been extraordinarily diverse, reflecting a restless and highly personal investigation of the modernist enterprise. Style, subject matter, and media have evolved steadily over the years, and many influences and inspirations have informed his work. Clemmer’s work of the 1940s evidenced a Cubist sensibility in his approach to form and space, while retaining a connection with the traditions of still life, figure, and landscape painting. In the 1950s, he produced large abstractions on Masonite panel, and many works on paper with a particular focus on portraits and nude figure studies. Landscape-inspired abstraction dominated Clemmer’s output in the 1960s, marking the development of a theme in his work that carries through to the present day. A hard-edge geometric style inspired by Byzantine illuminated manuscripts of the fifth and sixth centuries is prominent in the large canvases of the 1970s, gradually evolving into the softer, more impressionistic feel that typifies the work of the ’80s and ’90s.

A grounding in studio skills has provided a solid foundation for every aspect of Clemmer’s artistic journey. Figurative subject matter has emerged, disappeared, and re-emerged, and Clemmer’s oeuvre includes articulate pencil renderings and portraits in addition to a significant body of abstraction. In recent years, an ongoing series of large-scale studies of the effects of changing light on the countrysides of Greece and Italy, where the Clemmers have traveled extensively, has been a major component of his output. These paintings complement a parallel series of canvases evocative of the rural southern Louisiana landscapes of Clemmer’s childhood, and the Wisconsin birch forests where he now spends half the year.

Although thought of by many exclusively as a painter, Clemmer has also produced an extensive body of three-dimensional work. Beginning in 1949, Clemmer has been the recipient of numerous commissions for works in both public and private venues, executed in a wide variety of media. Included among the commissions were a series of religious sculptures for synagogues in Evanston, Illinois, and New Orleans, a group of fountains incorporating bronze panels and sand/plaster castings, and several monumental sand/plaster murals. Dozens of smaller works in metal, plexiglass, wood, and sand/plaster casting have emerged from his studio as well.

In October of 1999, Clemmer's achievements were presented in their fullest context to-date when the New Orleans Museum of Art opened John Clemmer: Exploring the Medium, 1945 - 1999, a major retrospective documenting sixty years of the artist's work. The exhibition, the accompanying catalogue, and a twelve-minute documentary film titled John Clemmer: Sculpture were enthusiastically received. (See sidebar) Concurrent with the NOMA retrospective, Clemmer's most recent work was presented in a solo exhibition at the New Orleans Academy Gallery, where he has shown in previous years. All in all, it was a year affirming Clemmer as a respected and familiar presence to generations of students, collectors, fellow artists, and academics.