Carla Accardi

Carla Accardi was an Italian abstract artist known for her innovative approach to painting. She is an artist of the post-war Italian avant-garde.

Carla Accardi made paintings that feature minimal color palettes, pseudo-calligraphic lines, and unique materials. Accardi’s works often featured bold colors and geometric shapes, utilizing techniques such as pouring and dripping paint onto the canvas. She experimented with various materials and textures, incorporating elements of collage and assemblage into her paintings. 

Accardi’s art was influenced by her interest in feminism and social issues, reflecting themes of identity, liberation, and the female experience. 

The artist is best known for her paintings on sicofoil, a transparent plastic sheeting used in commercial packaging, which she often arranged in interlocking geometric forms; these pieces generate a sense of movement. 

Accardi helped found the influential collective Forma 1. She was deeply committed to Marxist politics, which informed her abstract processes.Her work massively inspired the development of Arte Povera. 

Accardi’s work has been exhibited in New York, Rome, Paris, Venice, Los Angeles, and Madrid. She has featured in exhibitions at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, MoMA PS1, the Royal Academy of Arts, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, among others.

She passed away in 2014, leaving behind a rich and influential body of work.