JOHN CLEMMER
(American | New Orleans, 1921-2014)

John Clemmer was a modern artist active in the New Orleans art scene from 1939 to 2014. Clemmer attended and later taught at the Arts and Crafts Club’s New Orleans Art School, studying with Paul Ninas, Xavier Gonzalez, Enrique Alferez and Julius Woeltz. From 1951 to 1978, Clemmer taught at the Tulane University School of Architecture.  He then chaired Newcomb’s Department of Art and was the first recipient of the Maxine and Ford Graham Chair of Fine Art. He retired as emeritus professor of art in 1986. 

Clemmer joined the Orleans Gallery shortly after its opening in 1956 and remained a member of the artist cooperative until 1967. The Orleans Gallery was located at 527 Royal Street in the French Quarter and became the center of the contemporary art world in New Orleans until it closed in early 1973. Founded by seven artists including Robert Helmer, Shearly Grode, George Dunbar, Lin Emery, Jack Hastings, Jean Seidenberg, and James Lamantia, the gallery was run as an artist cooperative, a cutting-edge concept at the time. The artists were seeking a forum where they could openly share their ideas and exhibit their art based mainly in abstraction and Modernism that was not readily accepted in New Orleans at the time. By 1960, the Orleans Gallery was established and successful in New Orleans, allowing a true contemporary art scene to thrive in the city and providing the foundation for the robust gallery and art scene of today.   

 Clemmer created a substantial and varied body of modernist art, of which Acra III is an exceptionally fine example from his prime 1960s period. Retaining its original Orleans Gallery label, the painting is in beautiful, original condition.  Clemmer’s work has been the subject of two major museum retrospectives, John Clemmer: A Legacy in Art, at The Historic New Orleans Collection in 2021 and John Clemmer: Exploring the Medium, 1940-1999 at the New Orleans Museum of Art in 1999.

References:

Bonner, Judith, et. al., John Clemmer: A Legacy in Art, The Historic New Orleans Collection: New Orleans, 2021.

John Clemmer: Exploring the Medium, 1940-1999, New Orleans Museum of Art, 1999.

Acra III, 1966

oil on masonite, signed lower right, titled on Orleans Gallery label en verso, signed and numbered “#0260” en verso, 19 7/8 x 19 7/8 in., period frame.

SOLD