Born in Milan in 1923, Clemen Parrocchetti has lived and worked mainly in Milan and Borgo Adorno. After completing her classical studies, and marrying and giving life to four children, she enrolled at the Accademia di Brera where she graduated in 1955. Subsequently she attended courses in graphic design at the University of Urbino. Starting in 1957, (year of her first exhibition at the Galleria Spotorno in Milan) she presented about fifty personal exhibitions in Italy and abroad. In regards to these, she always received wide acclaim from critics and the public. She also attended numerous group exhibitions with considerable awards, including the first Pirandello prize in Agrigento (1977), the Pavia exhibition at the Cairoli University College (1977), the participation in the 1978 edition of the Venice Biennale and the same year at the Michetti International Award in Francavilla a Mare. In '79 she exhibited at Palazzo Diamanti in Ferrara, in 82 at the Muestra Internacional de Arte Grafica in Bilbao (Spain), in 1987 in Ottawa (Canada), in 1988 at the Grand Palais Femmes Artistes in Paris. In 2003 she arranged an art gallery in Milan at the Museum of Natural History. In 2005 she was invited to Biella to the group exhibition "On the thread of wool" sponsored by Philippe Daverio. In 2006 she launched the solo show "Il Filo di Clemen" at Palazzo Spinola in Rocchetta Ligure (Alessandria), in 2008 at the Italian Institute of Culture in Stockholm ( Sweden) and, again in 2008, "female myths" at Palazzo Guidobono in Tortona. Finally in 2015 "Living the life, always" at the Cortina Gallery in Milan.
The fifth daughter, Piaccarda was born at the beginning of her artistic career Her artistic production, began with realism typical drawings similarly to George Grozs,. Later in the '60s in it moved to shades of gray with internal and external views to highlight reasons of incommunicability - like Antonioni, as emphasized by the artist – Hence her work has acquired more light and has focused on strong colors with the presence of "different shapes" and assonances to Francis Bacon.
Also, in the 60s the attending of concerts and important jazz artists (Chet Baker, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk ...) represents a very significant period with representations of numerous pictures and graphics of concerts and sounds.
At the beginning of the '70s she became part of the women's liberation movement and her works of that period, gathered under the title "Love and devouring", justify the artist's activism in the lines of the protest.
Concerning this, Parrocchetti stated: " challenges are part of my history. I was born in a family and grew up with tough education to which I rebelled from but also partly suffered it. My love for drawing and painting was therapeutic because it helped me untie the inner knots, to free myself from fear and ghosts, to deceive myself of being free. I inherited this ability to draw from my father Antonio, who was a skilled watercolourist, ".
Numerous paintings are influenced by the so-called "feminist period" in which feminine tools and objects are used: needles, pins, threads, bobbins, beads, quills, etc. for allusive compositions of medium or larger dimensions such as the tapestries presented in '78 at the Venice Biennale and at the Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara. After a few years, her interest grows with greater focus on the various aspects of nature: spring, wind, stars, sea, landscape, thunder and lightning. Concerning this, Rossana Bossaglia stated: "... In the imaginative art of Clemen, there is that charge of dreams that leads her to represent, invent, dot down images of stars, blooms of the sky towards which she juts out, and the 'Thunder Shots' which don’t move her away from in the infinite direction, but they drive it there. Then looking at her paintings, we could argue more traditional style: landscapes, mostly framed by a window always with the look from the inside, from the locked and closed spaces - and using a metaphor of consistent weight – this pushes towards free spaces. These landscapes are presented with a loose, fluid painting style; but not only does the window enclose them in a schematic outline, even the curtains on the sides, full of celestial symbols, geometricize the total space ".
In the '80s there is the advent of mythological characters in her artistic vision, that will continue to be present along the entire artistic path together with other elements and ideas. For example: Medea rises on the chariot of the sun, Le Dioscure, Eurydice between flowers and fruits ... The loss of husband, daughter and small nephew bring a breath of sadness and nostalgia that are reflected in the production of the '90s: "Waves towards islands dressed in stars", "Running in a hurry ", "Feet that rise "... To be remembered the quote dedicated to Clemen in the book “Clemen's thread ":" Hard years, sudden segregations. The Hades opens, takes away my Giampaolo,. then a beloved daughter and a little nephew fly into Paradise: still beats to my heart with touches of nostalgia. " "Affections, home, world, this is the warp of Clemen's life" by Maria Aletti.
The 90s art performances are characterized by the animals that keep her company, that are the dog Micol, the cat Soffietto, always represented with great imagination: "Micolina equilibrista", "Micol flies around the Torre Velasca", "The cart of the cats "," The cat, the fox and me ".
The wardrobe with her clothes, in Borgo Adorno, eaten by moths, leads her to more naturalistic interests, which is to study insects and to represent them always with great refinement and poetry ("Tarma", "Swooping on clothes", "Erotic Danzetta of two fleas in love "...) also in graphics and three-dimensional works with fabrics and needlework. These will be the focus of an exhibition at the Museum of Natural History in Milan in 2003.
The sadness that gradually afflicts it, in the 2000s, is represented with a series of paintings, needle work fabrics and graphic works: "Labyrinths of my ears", "needle work stools" ... The ears, the musical notes, the eyes, the mouth, her animals will always be part of her production.
Clemen continues to work with her typical tools such as needle, thread, pencils and brushes until the end of her life, with a heart-breaking and admirable dedication to her work as an artist.
People that worte about Clemen Parrocchetti over the years are the following: Giorgio Kaisserlian, Raffaele De Grada, Gino Traversi, Dino Buzzati, Mario de Micheli, Marcello Venturoli, Rossana Bossaglia, Anty Pansera, Adele Faccio, Jean Blanchaert, Philippe Daverio and Maria Aletti.