) is a self-taught artist

Outsider Art

The term outsider art was coined by art critic Roger Cardinal in 1972 as an English synonym for art brut , a label created by French artist Jean Dubuffet to describe art created outside the boundaries of official culture; Dubuffet focused particularly on art by insane-asylum inmates.While...

 whose unconventional painting

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

 encompasses an erotic, and often sexually aggressive universe populated by characters who present themes of sexual identity with specific references to female sensuality. The Fondazione Sandretto carries over 150 pieces of Rama's work. Her works were relatively little known until curator Lea Virgine included several pieces in a 1980 exhibition, prompting Rama to revisit her earlier watercolour style.

As a young unmarried woman in a fascist

Fascism

Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...

 Italy, at 21 years of age, Carol Rama was already creating images that were challenging state censorship.

"I didn't think I had the qualities, qualità, for becoming an artist," Carol Rama told SAST Report in an interview, and continues with describing the view she had of the art scene: "beautiful women, primedonne, beautiful people who speak several different languages, sitting and being charming."

Solo exhibitions

1945 Galleria Faber, Turin

Turin

Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...

1946, 1947 Galleria Il Bosco, Turin

1955 Libreria Il Salto, Milano, (presentation by Albino Galvano)

1957 Galleria La Bussola, Turin, (presentation by Galvano)

1959 Galleria La Bussola, Turin, (presentation by Luigi Carluccio)

1960 Galleria La Bussola, Turin, (presentation by Galvano)

1964 Galleria Stampatori, Turin, (presentation by Galvano and Edoardo Sanguineti); Galleria La Carabaga, Sampierdarena (presentation by Sanguineti)

1965 Museo Civico, Pistoia, (presentation by Sanguineti)

1966 Galleria Lutrin, Lione, (presentation by Sanguineti)

1967 Galleria Numero, Rome, (presentation by Sanguineti); Galleria Fiamma Vigo, Rome, (presentation by Sanguineti)

1970 Sala Bolaffi, Turin

1971 Galleria La Bussola, Turin, (presentation by Sanguineti)

1972 Galleria Anthea, Rome, (presentation by Sanguineti)

1974 Galleria Il Fauno, Turin (presentation by Man Ray

Man Ray

Man Ray , born Emmanuel Radnitzky, was an American artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. Perhaps best described simply as a modernist, he was a significant contributor to both the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal...

)

1975 Galleria LP220, Turin, (presentation by Maurizio Fagiolo dell'Arco); Galleria Marin, Turin (presentation by Fagiolo dell'Arco)

1976 Place and sign, Galleria Luciano Anselmino, Milan, (presentation by Sanguineti); Galleria Il Capricorno, Venice, (presentation by Sanguineti)

1978 Galleria Weber, Turin, (presentation by Giancarlo Salzano)

1979 Galleria Martano, Turin, (presentation by Paolo Fossati, Galvano, Marco Vallora)

1980 Carol Rama: watercolors 1939-1941­, work 1966­-1980, Galleria Giancarlo Salzano, Turin (presentation by Corrado Levi and Sanguineti)

1981 Carol Rama, works 1950-1955, Galleria D'Arte Maggiorotto, Cavallermaggiore (presentation by Galvano and Paolo Fossati)

1983/84 Galleria Giancarlo Salzano, Turin (texts by Levi, Sanguineti, and Lea Vergine)

1985 Sagrato del Duomo, Milan, (curated by Lea Vergine); Carol Rama: Seven Works, Galleria Giancarlo Salzano, Turin

1987 Carol Rama, Works from 1937 to 1987, Galleria Dell'Oca, Rome, (presentation by Giuliano Briganti and Corrado Levi)

1988 Casa del Mantegna, Mantova (presentation by Giorgio Manganelli, Francesco Bartoli, Giuliano Briganti and Anne-Marie Sauzeau Boetti)

1989 Circolo degli Artisti, Turin (presentation by Paolo Fossati)

1990 Galleria UXA, Novara; Carol Rama, works 1989/90, Galleria Giancarlo Salzano

1991 Galleria Giancarlo Salzano; Paintings and drawings 1940/48, Galleria Giancarlo Salzano

1993 Carol Rama: Quasi note azzurre (Almost blue notes), Galleria Giancarlo Salzano

XLV Biennale Internazionale d'Arte, Venice (presentation by Achille Bonito Oliva and Corrado Levi)

1993/94 La corona di Keaton, 1993 ­ Idilli, 1993 ­ Inediti, 1952/57, Galleria Giancarlo Salzano

1994 Galleria Monica De Cardenas, Milano

1994-95 Carol Rama, Past to Present 1994-­1930, Galleria Sprovieri, Rome (presentation by Achille Bonito Oliva and Maurizio Fagiolo dell'Arco)

1995 Le stanze di Carolina 1939-1994, Galleria Otto, Bologna (presentation by Paolo Fossati and Dario Trento)

1996 Galleria Il Ponte, Turin; Stamperia del Borgo Po, Turin (text by Sanguineti)

1997 Carol Rama, works on paper, 1930s to present, Esso Gallery, New York, curated by Filippo Fossati (with presentation by Filippo Fossati, Levi, Paolo Fossati, Sanguineti and Ingrid Schaffner); Galleria Giancarlo Salzano, Turin

1998 Retrospective, Stedelijk Museum

Stedelijk Museum

Founded in 1874, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam is a museum for classic modern and contemporary art in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. It has been housed on the Paulus Potterstraat, next to Museum Square Museumplein and to the Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum and the Concertgebouw, in Amsterdam Zuid...

, Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

 traveling to ICA Boston; Incisioni Recenti, Franco Masoero Edizioni d'Arte, Turin

1999 Carol Rama, GAM, Museo d'Arte Moderna, Turin

2002 Galérie Anne de Villepoix, Paris

2003 Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy; Carol Rama, past and present, Esso Gallery, New York, NY

External links

• CAROL RAMA, "Sast Report: Culture"
• Exhibition at maccarone, new york October 25, 2008
• Info on a past exhibition of Rama's work, with images of a few of her paintings
• "Crazy Life", The Walrus
  The Walrus
  The Walrus is a Canadian general interest magazine which publishes long form journalism on Canadian and international affairs, along with fiction and poetry by Canadian writers. It launched in September 2003, as an attempt to create a Canadian equivalent to American magazines such as Harper's, The...
  
  , March 2005.
• "Esso Gallery"