Fabrizio Clerici

Fabrizio Clerici was a remarkably creative visual artist. Born in Milan, Italy, in 1913 to a bourgeois, Catholic, and conservative family, Clerici developed a multifaceted artistic career that spanned architecture, set and costume design, and photography—fields through which he expressed the full breadth of his imaginative and poetic vision.
In 1920, Clerici moved to Rome, where he began cultivating an early interest in archaeology and classical sculpture. As a teenager, he enrolled at the Liceo Artistico associated with the Accademia di Belle Arti in Via Ripetta. Eventually, he pursued studies in architecture at the University of Rome, where he encountered some of the most innovative figures in the city’s cultural scene, including Gio Ponti, Salvador Dalí and Gala, and Alberto Savinio, with whom he developed a long-lasting friendship.
During World War II, Clerici was in Milan, but he returned to Rome permanently in 1949. Fully immersed in the city’s cultural life, he collaborated with many prominent artists and intellectuals, including Lucio Fontana, Tristan Tzara, Salvador Dalí, Alberto Moravia, Elsa Morante, and Giorgio Strehler—who commissioned Clerici to design the sets for La vedova astuta by Carlo Goldoni.
In the 1950s, Clerici traveled extensively through the Middle East, drawing inspiration from the desert landscapes that informed many of his most evocative works. He never lost his fascination with classical mythology and often created imaginative renderings of ancient artistic fragments.
In 1977, Clerici produced a limited edition of lithographs for the theatrical performance Le Bestiaire by Guillaume Apollinaire.
He passed away in Rome in 1992, the year following the establishment of the Fabrizio Clerici Archive—created in accordance with his wishes to safeguard and preserve his legacy. His works are held in prestigious collections across the world, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum in the United States, as well as the Centre Pompidou in France.