Description

The first catalogue raisonné of the work of the provocative artist, awarded a Leone d’Oro alla Carriera in 2003.

Edited by Maria Cristina Mundici, with Raffaella Roddolo and Maria Grazia Messina, the Catalogue Raisonné of the works of Carol Rama analyzes fully, for the first time, the artist’s 70-year career, from 1936 to 2005.

A central and unique figure in the context of Italian art history, Carol Rama (Turin, 1918-2015) spanned the 20th century in a quest for experimentalism in both subject-matter and materials. Since the 2000s she began to be appreciated beyond Italy’s borders, and her fame grew after 2015 also thanks to important retrospectives in Europe and the United States.

In 2014 the Archivio Carol Rama began work on a Catalogue Raisonné of the artist’s works, to reflect the complex and unusual nature of this figure, who became an icon of creativity also among recent generations. In an operation marking the first of its kind, the Catalogue documents detailed historical research into the painter, her oeuvre, and the contexts in which she worked.

The Catalogue would not have been possible without the vital support of the Fondazione Sardi per l’Arte. The first volume is devoted wholly to historical and critical writings by important scholars of the artist (Fabio Belloni, Maria Cristina Mundici, Raffaella Roddolo, Federica Rovati, and Elena Volpato), who analyze her production with new ways of seeing. It is completed by a collection of 200 full-page colour images. The second volume consists in a complete set of illustrated technical and historical descriptions of the works, compiled by Raffaella Roddolo, as well as the accompanying reference sections (appendices, biography, exhibitions, bibliography).