As evoked by the title, in reconstructing the Sicilian artist’s work six years since her death, the exhibition (presented at the Museo del Novecento in Milan from 9 October 2020 to 27 June 2021) and catalogue explore the historical, social and political context of which Accardi was not only an interpreter but also a protagonist. This analysis includes both the dense network of relationships that shaped the artist’s imagination, and the fundamental exhibitions in her development, from the solo shows in Rome in the 1950s to participation in the exhibition on Italian art at the Guggenheim in New York in 1994, her personal room the at 1964 Biennale and retrospectives at the Castello di Rivoli and the MACRO in Rome.

The creative phases reconstructed in the essays are accompanied by a wealth of illustrations mainly from the Archivio Accardi Sanfilippo: vintage photos of the Forma group and of the artist with Giulio Paolini, Enrico Castellani and Michelangelo Pistoletto, images of her first exhibition designs, invitations and magazines with texts by Carla Lonzi and Anne Marie Sauzeau Boetti, reproductions of works from the geometric beginnings of the Scomposizioni (Decompositions) to her experiments with sicofoil. The elegant PVC cover that enfolds the catalogue in a play of transparencies pays homage to this material, which was Accardi’s stylistic signature. Carla Accardi. Contesti tells the story of an artist and a complex, militant woman, capable of acting on her context and beyond it. The graphic design of the catalogue is by Leonardo Sonnoli and Irene Bacchi (Studio Sonnoli).