Background

Accardi was born in Trapani, Sicily, Italy, on October 9, 1924.

Education

Carla Accardi expressed her interest in art at a very young age. Accardi’s father was the first to encourage her study of painting, being deeply impressed by his daughter’s early artworks. She attended the Accademia de Belle Arti in Palermo where she studied for one year. The need for a more intense artistic environment led Accardi to Florence, the art-centered city of that time.

In Florence Accardi enrolled in the Accademia, but soon realized that the formalized training and instruction presented in an art school setting didn't fit her. The school emphasized tradition and technique, and she wanted a new kind of art, similar to that of abstract expressionist artists like Klee, Kandinsky, and Mondrian.

Career

Accardi found her inspiration when she met the artist Antonio Sanfilippo, with whom she went to Rome in 1946. There she formed a close-knit circle of artist friends. In 1947, Carla Accardi, along with Sanfilippo, Mino Guerrini, Pietro Consagra, Giulio Turcato, Piero Dorazio, Achille Perilli, and Concetto Maugeri founded the group Forma 1. The group aimed to create a new kind of art taking inspiration from Abstract Expressionism. Forma 1 had their first exhibit in Rome in 1947.

Accardi’s works of this period combined bold colours with geometric shapes in reductive compositions, she became more experimental in her art. In 1946 she joined the Italian avant-garde movement. While her style softened in the 1950s, the artist maintained her interest in rhythm, figure, ground, and space, often exploring these relationships through different colours, patterns, and materials. In the 1960s, she made her first painting in black and white.

Carla Accardi moved to vibrant and intense colours in the mid-1960s, with the creation of Stella and II Stella (Star I and II). Concurrently, she started to use a clear plastic material called Sicofoil, like in her artwork Tendas.

In 1970 Accardi together with critic Carla Lonzi established one of Italy's first feminist groups and publishing houses. Her first solo exhibition in the United States took place in 2001 at the Museum of Modern Art PS1. Among her later exhibitions were the following: in 2002 at the Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and Carla Accardi, Galleria Pecci; Milan, Italy; in 2003 at the Carla Accardi-Opere recenti, Galleria Astuni; Pietrasanta, Italy; in 2004 at the Macro Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Roma; Rome, Italy; in 2007 at the Galerie Greta Meert, Brussels.

Achievements

• 

  Carla Accardi’s innovations to the art world have been well recognized throughout her career. In 1996 Accardi received the prestigious title of Cavaliere di Gran Croce Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana in honour of her lasting contributions to the humanities.
  
  Accardi is considered a key member of the Italian Avant-Garde and her works influenced the Arte Povera movement in the late 1960s.
  
  She was widely known for such her works as Azzurroviolarancio (1962), Segni Rosa (1971), Apparenti Tinte (1990), Viola Arancio (2005), Senza Titulo (2011), L'Enigma dell'ora, Melodie Fluvial and Mistero en forme (2012).

Works

More photos

• painting

  • Apparenti tinte

  • Settori

  • Azzurro turchese

  • Giallo

  • Blue Viola

  • Verdeargento

  • Trasparente

  • Islam

  • Rosso

  • Rosso scuro

  • Segni rosa

  • Quattro trapezi azzurri

  • Rosa grigio grande

  • Viola Rosso

  • Rosa-Viola-Bianco

  • Negativo-Positivo

  • Nero

  • Rettangolo rosso

  • Blu

  • Nero su Bianco (Black on White)

  • Untitled

  • Per L’Infinito lo Scirocco n. 2

  • Interno

  • Pietrose distanze

  • Composizione

  • Gridi di dipinte piume

  • Piccolo ovale

  • Bozzetto

  • Frammenti

  • Arancioazzurro

  • Lotta di polipi

Views

During the late 1970s, Carla Accardi became part of the feminist movement.

Quotations: "I have always used painting as an inspiration for anti-painting; it is a desire for contradiction."

Connections

Carla Accardi was married to Antonio Sanfilippo.

Spouse:

Antonio Sanfilippo

References

• Carla Accardi This monograph is the first in English on a seminal artist, who, perhaps more than any other, helped to put an end to the marginalization of women in the Italian art scene, and who co-founded the Forma 1 movement in 1947.
  2001
• Carla Accardi: Catalogue Raisonne (English and Italian Edition) English and Italian Edition.
  2013
• Infinite Space: Carla Accardi & Lucio Fontana
  2006