In the Studio: Carol Rama

The latest installment in the In the Studio series focuses on the self-taught Italian artist Carol Rama, whose endlessly inventive practice explored themes of desire, eroticism, and repression while subverting established notions of gender, sexuality, and representation. Authored by art historian and curator Maria Cristina Mundici, a leading scholar on Rama who worked alongside the artist for decades, In the Studio: Carol Rama provides a comprehensive overview of Rama’s fascinating life and work, illustrated by a generous selection of archival material and artwork images. This publication guides readers through the artist’s seventy-year career, from the formative years of her adolescence and early psychosexual watercolors, through her subversive abstract Bricolages and Gomme (Rubbers) series, and all the way up to her return to figuration in her late work. This is complemented by a text exploring Rama’s relationships with figures including Man Ray, Edoardo Sanguineti, and Italo Calvino; an analysis of her personal library that offers insight into her diverse influences; and an encounter with Rama herself through the inclusion of a 1997 interview, in which she explains her personal relationship with certain colors. Providing a concise and accessible account of the artist’s remarkably eclectic practice, In the Studio: Carol Rama is both a perfect entry point for those looking to engage with Rama for the first time and a brilliant resource for those looking to go deeper into her work.