Carla Accardi (Italian, 1924–2014) was a painter associated with the Forma I movement, and is best known for her abstract paintings of calligraphic signs. Born in Sicily, Accardi was one of the founding members of Forma I, a group of artists who embraced Futurism and Marxism as a response to the oppressive Fascist regime in Italy. In her early work of the 1950s, Accardi made paintings of circles and signs, which are a more restrained counterpart to Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings. During the 1960s, she began painting abstract calligraphic shapes in hues of blue or green on a red background, and began using a clear plastic material called Sicofoil. Throughout her career, Accardi made many Tendas, which are tents of clear plastic with painted forms that suggest issues of domesticity and nomadism. In her Triplice Tenda (1969), for example, bright pink shapes seem to float in a circular tent made of plastic. Accardi is considered to be one of the key members of the Italian avant-garde, and her work influenced the Arte Povera movement of the late 1960s. Her work has been exhibited at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, MoMA PS1 Contemporary Art Center in New York, and the Rivoli Museum in Turin, Italy, among other institutions.
CARLA ACCARDI
