PARIS.- The exhibition Carla Lonzi: Self-portrait of a generation is conceived as a tribute to the author and radical thinker Carla Lonzi (1931-1982). Fourteen works are being exhibited, one by each of the artists with whom Lonzi met to write Autoritratto (1969) - the last book she published as an art critic before dedicating herself entirely to the feminist cause. These historic paintings and sculptures are accompanied by rich documentation from Carla Lonzi's archives, bringing to life the pages of a book as revealing of the art scene of its time as it is experimental and innovative from a literary point of view.

It was during a long visit to the United States between 1967 and 1968 that Lonzi dedicated herself to transcribing the many conversations and correspondences she had had over the previous decade with a circle of leading artists on the Italian scene. From her questions and each artist's answers, she then weaves an imaginary round table where each would respond to the thoughts of the others, or, as Lonzi describes it in her introduction: "a sort of convivium, real for me since I lived it, even if it didn’t happen in a single unit of time and place."

One of the few interactions featured in Autoritratto that actually occurred is the discussion between Enrico Castellani and the sculptor Pietro Consagra around the countercultures of the 1960s. The two artists compare the student protests happening at time with the Hippie movement in the United States."For me, to differentiate the frontal space from the central space was, for me, a raising of consciousness of social problems, of my way of saying that I didn’t believe in anything" explains Consagra, who is represented in the exhibition by his work Città frontale (Frontal City, 1968), owned by the artist's family and created while his partner Lonzi was working on Autoritratto. It is accompanied by previously unpublished documentation of exchanges between Lonzi and Consagra from the sculptor's archives, illustrating the genesis of the work.

Alongside this sculpture is a large Sicofoil made in 1967 and dedicated to the author by Carla Accardi, co-founder with Lonzi of the Rivolta Femminile collective. Accardi intervenes numerous times in the text of Autoritratto, often interrogating Lonzi on her project and, more broadly, on the role of the critic in art. This same structural questioning animates the debates between Jannis Kounellis and Luciano Fabro, in particular, whose performative practices push the boundaries of institutional exhibition frameworks. They are represented in the exhibition by historic works: Kounellis by a canvas from his famous Alfabeto of the early 1960s, and Fabro by In Cubo (misure di Carla) (In Cube (Carla's measurements), 1966), an interactive work based on Lonzi's height and arm-span belonging to the artist's family, who, through their generous loan, wish to take part in the tribute to the author.

The doyen of the group, Lucio Fontana, talks about his changing relationship to technique from his ceramics to the Concetti Spaziali (Spatial Concepts), such as those presented in the exhibition. For him in the 1960s, "it's the creation that's important," he says, "technique is secondary." Upon which, Giulio Paolini nuances that the latter "allows us to subtract, from the space in which we are present, the other part of the space that is the work of art, and which nullifies itself, precisely through this technique." Or, as Pino Pascali adds later in the text, "the Gallery isn’t there, it’s truly your paintings that make the Gallery."

Each artist defines in their own words their conception of a work of art and the role of the artist in Autoritratto. Getulio Alviani asserts that he "prefers to think of objects rather than to think," while for Mario Nigro the physical work is merely a pretext for a broader research into rhythm and infinity, as shown by the work Gli eserciti, le guerre (The armies, the wars, 1969) which is illustrated in Autoritratto whilst in progress. For Mimmo Rotella and Giulio Turcato, "magic" and "surprise" respectively are essential to the artist's work.

At the heart of the debate is the comparison between the spheres of American and Italian art, which introduces Salvatore Scarpitta, an Italian-born artist based in New York. He describes the disparate reception in Italy and the USA of his bandaged canvases, such as the one presented in the exhibition. Only Cy Twombly, an American artist working in Rome and contacted in 1962, leaves Lonzi without an answer. Nevertheless, she incorporates the questions she had submitted to him into the imaginary conversation, and makes the American artist appear at several key moments in the text, quoting his "(Silence.)".

Each sentence is left almost intact by Lonzi, who does not correct the speakers' hesitations and ellipses. Adopting a strategy that can be linked to her rising feminist consciousness of the late 1960s, Lonzi rejects the intellectual paternalism of the art critic as mediator of the artists' message and thought. In Autoritratto, she gives them a voice, drawing up a vivid, human portrayal of a generation of creators through their daydreams, questionings and frustrations.

Without attempting to establish a chronology or to group the artists into movements or schools, the exhibition features a dialogue between the works of each artist and their words, through excerpts from the text. Accompanied by the photographs that illustrate Autoritratto, many of which are intimate and personal, the exhibition aims to immerse visitors in this work whose conceptualization and formal execution gave critique an unprecedented artistic dimension.

Carla Lonzi: Self-portrait of a generation is made possible by generous loans from the Collezione Roberto Casamonti and others who prefer to remain anonymous. We would also like to thank the Archivio Pietro Consagra, the Archivio Luciano e Carla Fabro and the Archivio Carla Lonzi at the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna for their invaluable support in the realization of this project.

Tornabuoni Art
Carla Lonzi: Self-portrait of a generation
7 February - 13 April 2024