Accardi, Carla, 1924-2014

Carla Accardi (9 October 1924 – 23 February 2014) was an Italian abstract painter associated with the Arte Informel and Arte Povera movements and a founding member of the Italian art groups Forma (1947) and Continuità (1961). Born in the city of Trapani in Sicily[1], Carla Accardi studied at the Accademia di Bella Arti in Palermo and Florence prior to moving to Rome in 1946. She founded the art group Forma in 1947 with fellow artists Pietro Consagra (1920-2005), Ugo Attardi (1923-2006), Antonio Sanfilippo (1923-1980), Giulio Turcato (1912-1995), Piero Dorazio (1927-2005), Achille Perilli and Mino Guerrini, an Italian screenwriter, director, actor and painter. Accardi married Sanfilippo in 1949.[2] Forma 1 had their first exhibition in Rome in 1947. Accardi's work became well known in France where the art critic Michel Tapie took an interest in her work; Accardi's earliest paintings were self-portraits, but her move to Rome prompted more experimental work. In 1946, she joined the Italian avant-garde movement. In the 1960s, Accardi started making her first paintings in black and white, focusing on monochromy, color, and shapes.[4]

She transitioned to vibrant and intense colors in the mid-1960s, with Stella and II Stella (Star I and II).[5] She also began using a clear plastic material called Sicofoil, which she describes as "like something luminous, a mixing and a fluidity with the surrounding environment: perhaps in order to take away the totemic value of the painting."[5] She used this material to make Tendas, or tents of clear plastic, which she adorned with painted forms.

During the late 1970s, she became part of the feminist movement with critic Carla Lonzi. Together, they founded Rivolta femminile in 1970, one of Italy's first feminist groups and publishing houses.[6] Accardi is considered a key member of the Italian Avant-Garde and her artwork influenced the Arte Povera movement in the late 1960s.[7][8] Accardi's first solo exhibition in the United States was in 2001 at MoMA PS1.[9][10]

Known works include: 1960 Bianco nero su turchese (1960), Azzurroviolarancio (1962), Bozetto Bronzo (1964), Segni Rosa and Verde (both 1968), Segni Rosa (1971), Per L'Infinito lo Scirocco (1987), Apparenti Tinte (1990), Grigio Rosso (1992), Verde Rosso (1997), Viola Arancio (2005), Blu (2007), Rosso du Grigio (2008), Senza Titulo (2011), L'Enigma dell'ora, Melodie Fluvial and Mistero en forme (2012)