Carla Accardi

Carla Accardi - Formalism and Marxism characterised her early years

Carla Accardi was born on 9th October 1924 in Trapani, Sicily. Her passion for art led her to Palermo, where she began studying at the Accademia di Belli Arti. During this time, she met the artist Antonio Sanfilippo, also from Sicily, with whom she soon formed a close friendship, although it was also characterised by a deep rivalry. In 1946, the couple moved to Rome and got married. They quickly found access to the local artist circles and were frequent guests in Pietro Consagra's studio, and in 1947, Carla Accardi and Antonio Sanfillipo were among the founding members of the Marxist Gruppo Forma 1, which lasted until 1951. In later years, however, Accardi distanced herself from the association and its underlying political and artistic ideas. Up until 1949, she was only able to present her paintings in group exhibitions, but finally had her first solo exhibition at the Galleria Age d'or in Rome in 1950.

Tents made of colourful plastic panels delight the art world

In the 1950s, Carla Accardi worked predominantly with interlocking geometric shapes, reminiscent of Jackson Pollock's drip paintings. Her experiments with abstract painting aroused the interest of the art critic Michel Tapié in France, who also made her art known in France and later composed the foreword for an exhibition catalogue. Accardi thus became one of the most influential female representatives of the Italian avant-garde and in the 1960s in particular, made a significant contribution to the development of Arte Povera. Having focused mainly on black and white abstraction for many years, she returned to colour in 1961. She replaced her traditional canvas with the transparent plastic Sicofoil and built entire tents out of plastic sheets decorated with pink patterns (Tenda, 1965 and Triplice Tenda, 1969), which she presented at the Venice Biennale to great acclaim. She returned to the canvas in 1980.

The artist was also a committed activist

Carla Accardi was strongly committed to feminist issues in art and was one of the founders of the feminist association Rivolta Femminile in 1970, alongside the journalist Elvira Banotti and art critic Carla Lonzi. One consequence of this commitment was the opening of the feminist art gallery Cooperativa Beato Angelico in Rome. As previously with Forma 1, Accardi later distanced herself from the aims and ideas of the group, but both memberships left their mark on the artist's work and were significant for her development. Carla Accardi's work was shown in exhibitions all over the world and she was a frequent guest at the Venice Biennale, where she also acted in an advisory capacity in 1997. She had previously taken part in the exhibition The Italian Metamorphosis at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1995, her hometown of Trapani dedicated a major retrospective to the artist in 1998, and in 2001, she had her first solo exhibition in the USA. 

Carla Accardi died in Rome on 23rd February 2014.