Carla Accardi was born in Trapani, Sicily, in 1924 and moved to Rome in 1946, where she became one of the central figures of post-war Italian abstraction. In 1947, together with Piero Dorazio, Achille Perilli, Giulio Turcato, Antonio Sanfilippo and Pietro Consagra, she co-founded the Forma 1 group, whose manifesto advocated for an abstract language rooted in both formal experimentation and political consciousness.
From the early 1950s, Accardi developed a distinctive visual vocabulary based on signs, rhythms and chromatic structures. Initially working in black and white, she later introduced vivid colour and, during the 1960s, began experimenting with transparent plastic supports such as sicofoil. These works transformed painting into a luminous, spatial and almost environmental experience, questioning the traditional limits of the canvas and opening the image to light, transparency and movement.
Accardi’s practice occupies a fundamental position in the history of Italian abstraction. Her work moves between sign and surface, structure and intuition, optical perception and material experimentation. Across more than six decades, she continuously renewed her language while maintaining a precise investigation into the autonomy of painting.
Accardi participated in several editions of the Venice Biennale, including those of 1964, 1976, 1978 and 1988. Her work was included in major historical exhibitions such as The Italian Metamorphosis 1943–1968 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, in 1994. Her works are held in important public collections, including the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome; Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Turin; Museo del Novecento, Milan; GAM – Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin; MAMbo – Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna; and Galleria Civica di Modena.
Carla Accardi died in Rome in 2014.