One of Italy’s most influential post-war artists

Compton Verney and the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art in London present the first UK institutional project dedicated to Carla Accardi (1924 – 2014). Shown across two exhibitions running at the same time, this collaboration offers a long-overdue chance to experience one of Italy’s most influential post-war artists in depth. 

Two exhibitions, one shared story 

The two exhibitions are conceived together as one project, but they offer different ways into Accardi’s work. 

At Compton Verney, the exhibition follows Accardi’s career from beginning to end, in a broadly linear way. It takes you from her early post-war abstraction and the Forma 1 group in Rome, through the development of her distinctive sign-like marks, and into the shift to bold colour and new materials. A key moment is her breakthrough use of Sicofoil, a transparent industrial plastic that brings light and space into the work. As the exhibition progresses, you see how Accardi pushed painting beyond the frame, creating works that become spatial and immersive, and that change as you move through the galleries. 

At the Estorick Collection, the exhibition draws out themes and turning points in Accardi’s practice, concentrating on key moments rather than the full span of her career. In the museum’s intimate, domestic setting, it brings together carefully chosen contrasts, including the move from late 1950s black-and-white paintings to the early 1960s works with striking neon colour. It also places her translucent Sicofoil works alongside later raw-canvas pieces, and includes sculptural works that connect her thinking to rooms, objects and everyday space.