Introduction -
Domenico de Clario - Arles

Domenico de Clario has had an extraordinary career spanning 60 years as an interdisciplinary artist, academic, writer and musician. Predominantly based in Australia he has also traversed the globe to present, perform, exhibit or create by invitation as well as, at times, pursue opportunities that present themselves by chance as one set of circumstances lead to the next. In a continuation of his capacity and search for new visual conversations and reflections, in his latest series de Clario has created a swathe of paintings on wooden panels, the culmination of 2 years spent in the south of France creating a body of works that pay homage to the post-impressionist master Vincent van Gogh.

Arriving at first by a set of intuitive steps that brought him in direct contact with the light, landscape and Vincent’s vision of Arles, once there de Clario immediately set about making 187 paintings, the very same number that van Gogh made during his 14 months in 1888-89 in that unique Provencal city that has now become a cogent component of a timeless visual language. It was through this deep immersion in and meditation on van Gogh’s vision that led to de Clario making the very same number of ethereal images, at times vivacious and filled with colour, at times muted and atmospherically charged with an ‘Arlesian radiance’ whose power directly links to those created by Vincent. It is a series constituting a single work as well as the sum of its parts, each emitting unique singularity.

First installed in the 8th century church of Saint Genest this contemplative context intensified the deep feeling of ‘spirit of place’ that was inherent both in the making of each work and in its site specific installation. Following this the 187 paintings were transported back to Australia in the middle of this year in order to be shown to audiences more intimately familiar with de Clario and his contribution to global contemporary art from an Antipodean perspective.

In 2025 Jean de Loisy, the Director of the Fondation Vincent van Gogh in Arles, commissioned de Clario to design and install a monument both to Vincent van Gogh and to Vincent’s visionary concept of gathering a small group of progressive artists to live and work together in the Yellow House. This monument (doubling as a post-box whose purpose is to receive letters to Vincent from all over the world) is now permanently installed in Place Lamartine in Arles,