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CAROL RAMA AND DORA MAAR. Hermits
20 September 2024 @ 17:00 - 20 October 2024 @ 12:30
If it is true that limits ignite creativity and that only by overcoming them, by challenging conventions, does one cross over into the artistic dimension, the works of Carol Rama and Dora Maar are exemplary demonstrations of the truth of this reflection.
Contemporaries (Maar 1907-1997, Rama 1918-2015, with surnames – even though Maar is a stage name – that are curiously anagrammable), both marked by irregular and restless lives, coming from different backgrounds and with unique artistic paths, they were able to develop a very personal visual language, capable of boldly tackling intimate and universal themes. Dora Maar, who in the Paris of Surrealism had found the ideal terrain for expressing her artistic vision through photography and, later, painting, chose solitude, retreating to Ménerbes, Provence, after the dramatic breakup of her passionate yet destructive relationship with Pablo Picasso. Carol Rama, too, in Turin, chose to live her artistic experience essentially in isolation, responding provocatively to the austere and rigorous environment of the city through her nonconformist representation of the demons that tormented her.
The title of the exhibition, in collaboration with Vico Spinola Gallery in Savona, is a tribute to Maar and Rama’s conscious choice to pursue their artistic journey alone, striving for freedom from all conditioning. The works exhibited by Dora Maar are those relating to her progressive isolation, around the 1950s, in which figuration disappears – or is reduced to a minimum – to allow the lyrical essence of the composition to emerge, veering towards abstraction even when the subjects are landscapes. Carol Rama’s works reflect a profound sense of rebellion not only by exploring themes such as mental illness and sexuality, but also through the use of unconventional techniques and ‘non-conforming’ materials including nails, nibs or even animal skin, as in the works on display made in the 1960s.
Maar and Rama confront their own complex identities with disarming transparency: the former, transforming excessive vulnerability into creative strength and poetic introspective capacity; the latter, challenging conventional artistic canons with audacious rawness of expression. ‘Hermits’ to whom time has restored the rightful recognition.
