Alain Clément was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1941. He is living and working in Nîmes, Paris and Berlin.
1962 Paris. Drawing in the studio in La Grande Chaumière, engraving and printing in Atelier 17 (S. W. Hayter).
1965 Settles near Montpellier and establishes a studio for intaglio printing and typography. Conceives and publishes books that he illustrates.
1968 Drawing in the museum of Montpellier in the style of Géricault, Delacroix and Courbet. Co-founds ABC Productions, a group of artists that engage in a deconstruction of painting and of its pictures. Joint distribution of their work irrespective of any official channels, publications of their theoretical research in manifestos and magazines. Discovers the American abstract art and its large formats.
1970-1978 Teaches in the École des Beaux-Arts in Montpellier. Summer in Germany. Committed politically in painting: this was a dead end. Associates with painters in Cologne. Organises with his painter friends, a cycle of shows/manifestos. Series of large chalk paints saturating the space. Draws inspiration from the works of Monet, Stella and Newman. His sensual pleasure in pictorial matters binds him always to ancient types of paints despite the modernist radicalism of his paintworks. Builds up a friendship with the philosopher Yves Michaud who will write numerous texts about his oeuvre. Leaves the École des Beaux-Arts in Montpellier and starts teaching in Nîmes. Exhibition in the musée Fabre, Montpellier, where he shows works from seven years.
1979-1985 Settles in Nîmes. Drawings in the style of La Mort de Sardanapale that give rise to paintings on canvas not stretched on frame. Stands alongside with Joan Mitchell and Shirley Jaffe in the Gallery Jean Fournier (Paris).
Exhibits large paintings with flower names in the abbeys of Senanque in Gordes and Montmajour in Arles in which the excitement of the coloured gestures meets the austerity of Romanesque architecture. Monumental paintings and ceilings for the music hall of the museum Ludwig in Aachen. The painting is overflowing and fills the space. The colour leaves the frame and unites with architecture. First exhibition in the Gallery Wentzel in Cologne. Is appointed director of the School of Fine Arts in Nîmes in 1985.
1986-1989 Travels to Rome and Venice. Studies of Borromini and Bernini result in paintings where convulsing bodies mingle with baroque architecture. Portraits of women. Cycle of Filles du Feu after Gérard de Nerval. Summer in New York. Paints a large collection of paintings. Meets the sculptor Anthony Caro and the critics Karen Wilkin and Clement Greenberg. Imaginary portraits of writers who accompany him and who nourish his oeuvre.
1990-1999 Stops teaching and being director of the École des Beaux-Arts in Nîmes. Paints 50 portraits of Elisabeth from 1 to 50 years Stay in New York. Series of drawings involving the architecture and the atmosphere of jazz clubs Paints a series of small formats developed after his return into an exhibition in the museum of Céret. A cycle of monumental diptychs exhibited in Carré d’art in Nîmes marks the apotheosis of this period. The broad lyricism vanishes: formats are no longer huge, paintwork regains self-control and reframes; the space regains structures through the use of colours, takes shape through values. First series of wooden sculptures with polychrome painting. Metal becomes imperative in the cycles of sculptures that alternate and dialogue with the cycles of paintwork.
2000 Monumental sculptures presented at the fair of Cologne by the Gallery Orangerie-Reinz. Long stay in Tuscany. Profound studies of the Quattrocento from where derives a geometric space that restructures the new works. The practice of sculpture is intensified. Numerous monumental sculptures for private collections in France and abroad. Flying trip to Tangier for the purpose of verifying the motive of light and the colour of Matisse that are haunting him and for the purpose of a long series of paintworks in free and coloured arabesques. The Gallery Baudoin Lebon installs two monumental sculptures on the square of the Grand Palais in Paris to the purpose of a personal exhibition dedicated to him on occasion of the Art Paris. The sculptural space turns architectural. Installation in Berlin. Studies for a cycle of graphic paintings realized when he returned to his studio in Nîmes. Construction of several sets of monumental sculptures installed particularly in the Nyrox Foundation in Johannesburg and in Suzhou in China.
2017 First exhibition in FRANCIS MAERE FINE ARTS GALLERY