A renowned art critic of the 1960s, Carla Lonzi abandoned the art world in 1970 to found Rivolta Femminile, a pioneering feminist collective in Italy. Rather than separating the art world luminary from the activist, however, this book looks at the two together. It demonstrates that even as Lonzi refused art, she articulated how feminist spaces and communities drew strength from creativity.
The eleven essays in this book document the artistic and feminist circles of postwar Italy, a time characterised both by radical protest and avant-garde aesthetics, using primary and archival sources never before translated into English. They map Lonzi's deep connections to the influential Italian Arte Povera movement, and explore her complicated relationship with female artists of the time, such as Carla Accardi and Suzanne Santoro.
Carla Lonzi's written work and activism represents a crucial, but previously overlooked, feminist intervention in traditional art history from beyond the Anglo-American canon. This book is a timely and urgent addition to our understanding of radical politics, separatist feminism and art criticism in the postwar period.
Author(s): Francesco Ventrella (editor), Giovanna Zapperi (editor)
Publisher: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 296
Tags: Feminism, Gender Studies, Literary Theory
Cover
Contents
List of illustrations
List of contributors
Acknowledgements
Introduction Against culture: Feminism and art in postwar Italy Francesco Ventrella and Giovanna Zapperi
Part One Art writing against art
1 Carla Lonzi: Encountering American art Judith Russi Kirshner
2 Magnetic encounters: Listening to Carla Lonzi’s tape recordings Francesco Ventrella
3 (Post-)normative silence Sabeth Buchmann
Part Two Creativity and the feminist subject
4 The making of a feminist subject: Autonomy, authenticity and withdrawal Giovanna Zapperi
5 Turbulence zone: Diasporic resonances across Carla Lonzi’s archive Liliana Ellena
6 ‘I thought art was for women’ Suzanne Santoro interviewed by Francesco Ventrella and Giovanna Zapperi
Part Three Art as relation
7 The end of the affair: Carla Lonzi and the politics of Rapporto Leslie Cozzi
8 Reimagining the family album: Carla Lonzi’s Autoritratto Teresa Kittler
9 The Cooperativa Beato Angelico: A feminist art space in Rome Katia Almerini
Part Four Genealogies and resonances
10 Free escape Elisabeth Lebovici
11 Feminism and art c. 1970: Writing (art) otherwise Griselda Pollock
Index
