Exhibition Seven creative decades of a rebel at the Kunstmuseum Bern
Carol Rama in her studio apartment, 1994.
Image: Keystone
I due Pini (Appassionata) (La signora Macor), 1939.
Image: Keystone
Carol Rama in her studio apartment, 1994.
Image: Keystone
I due Pini (Appassionata) (La signora Macor), 1939.
Image: Keystone
The Kunstmuseum Bern is dedicating the first comprehensive retrospective in Switzerland to Carol Rama. The Italian Rama was a non-conformist and pioneer of feminist art.
05.03.2025, 10:20
SDA
The exhibition "Carol Rama. Rebel of Modernism" shows the many facets of an oeuvre characterized by rebellion, radicalism, experimentation and a variety of materials, according to the Kunstmuseum Bern.
"For me, work, painting, was always something that made me feel less unhappy, less poor, less ugly and even less ignorant... I paint to heal myself," Rama said in an interview in 1997. She dedicated her work to the themes of sexuality, delusion, illness and death.
Rama was born in Turin in 1918. In the mid-1930s, she decided to become an artist and confront the dominance of men in everyday life, as the art museum explains.
In the early 1940s, Carol Rama moved into a studio apartment in Turin. This became the lifelong focus of her artistic work and a meeting place for intellectuals and creatives.
The avant-gardist Rama was active for 70 years. She only received recognition late in life: in 2003, she was awarded the Golden Lion for her life's work at the 50th Venice Biennale. She died in 2015.
Rama developed new artistic approaches every ten years or so. These are presented in the exhibition in six chapters, each dedicated to a specific creative phase. The art museum is showing 110 works by Rama. The exhibition runs from March 7 to July 13.
