2024 marks not only the centenary of Carla Accardi's birth, but also the tenth anniversary of her passing, a significant occasion to commemorate her extraordinary contribution to art and culture.
Until 9 June 2024, the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome is hosting a retrospective dedicated to the artist. The exhibition, curated by Daniela Lancioni and Paola Bonani, presents around 100 works, created from 1946 to 2014, which span the entire career of this key figure of contemporary Italian and international visual culture.
Born in Trapani, Italy in 1924, Accardi moved to Rome in 1946, where she quickly became a leading figure in the capital's avant-garde circles. Together with her husband Antonio Sanfilippo, she founded Gruppo Forma 1 with other artists including Giulio Turcato, Piero Dorazio and Pietro Consagra. In the mid-1950s her works became known in France thanks to the interest of the art critic Michel Tapié.
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In the 1960s, from her first abstract black and white canvases, in which she concentrated on monochrome, she moved on to colourful, intense paints to be applied on transparent plastic supports. Accardi's works stand out for the essential use of shapes, lines and colours, according to a scheme free from symbolism and allegorical meanings. The artist often explored the use of unconventional materials, such as casein and Sicofoil, a transparent plastic. Her work influenced new artistic approaches, including the Arte Povera movement.
See also: Abstract Art: From Genre to Movement
An exponent of Italian Neo-Feminism, in the early '70s she co-founded Rivolta Femminile, one of the first feminist groups and publishing houses in Italy, together with activists such as Carla Lonzi and Elvira Banotti. Accardi painted in her home in the historic centre of Rome until her death in 2014, at the age of 89.
In recent years, the auction market has witnessed growing interest in Accardi. Collectors of her work are still mainly Italian, but demand from abroad is growing. The Roman exhibition represents a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in Carla Accardi's artistic universe and celebrate her extraordinary contribution to contemporary art.
