In 1918, Olga Carolina Rama, known as Carol Rama, was born in Turin. She grew up in opulent surroundings, as the Rama family thrived in a comfortable middle-class milieu, thanks to her father’s successful enterprise—a renowned auto body shop creating parts for prominent automotive giants of the era. The family estate, nestled at 17 Dijon Street, served as both residence and as a farm. On number 19 of the same street resided the atelier of painter Gemma Vercelli, where young Olga posed as a model and absorbed the rudiments of painting.
Following compulsory schooling, Carol endeavored to further her education by seeking enrollment in the Academy of Fine Arts. However, her disposition towards formal education led to her discontinuation of studies there. As a self-taught artist, she nurtured a fervent love for painting since her adolescence, finding solace from life’s pressures and uncertainties within the realms of art, often employing reclaimed materials in her creations.
At only eighteen years of age, Carol created painted Nonna Carolina (1936), today housed at the Galleria Civica d’arte moderna e contemporanea in Turin. This inaugural watercolor was followed by many subsequent works, joined by oil paintings distinguished by richly textured colors. Rama’s oeuvre frequently draws inspiration from elements deeply rooted in her own life experiences. Many of these pieces, characterized by explicit sexual undertones, exhibit an elegant mark-making style reminiscent of the works of Egon Schiele.
The mid-1940s, a period fraught with personal upheavals including the loss of her father, the ravages of wartime bombings in Turin and the subsequent reduction of her artistic production is the time when Carol Rama met Felice Casorati’s interest. While Rama never formally enrolled as his pupil, Casorati, recognizing her inherent artistic potential, and offered his mentorship and support. Through this association, Rama gleaned invaluable insights and guidance. This connection fostered significant relationships, notably with Casorati’s wife, Daphne Maugham, with whom she developed a profound friendship. The influence of Felice Casorati facilitated Rama’s immersion into the cultural milieu of the era, creating connections with Paola Levi Montalcini, Italo Cremona, and Albino Galvano. Galvano was instrumental in shaping Rama’s artistic vision and later contributed to some of the most poignant analyses of her work. At the same time, Casorati initiated her into exhibition activity. Her first exhibition in 1945 at the Opera Pia Cucina, considered offensive to the common sense of decency, was not open to the public. Carol Rama’s works were exhibited in 1946 at the Del Bosco Gallery in a group show, followed the following year by the artist’s first solo exhibition at the same gallery. Exhibition opportunities gradually grew, including solo shows and frequent participation in major exhibitions such as the Venetian Biennale and the Roman Quadrennial.
In the early 1950s, Rama met Pablo Picasso, an artist she admired and that had influenced her work, as evident in many of her oil paintings dating from the end of the previous decade. From 1951 Rama’s works clearly turned towards abstractionism, shifting toward the Informal in the second half of the decade. The artist often returns to dense color layering and tighter abstract compositions that meet with the appreciation of, among others, one of the best-known gallery owners in Turin: Giuseppe Bertasso, owner of La Bussola. In 1957 he organized her first solo show at the gallery, followed by others until the early 1970s. In the 1980s, this type of works will be supported by the Maggiorotto Gallery.
A woman endowed with boundless intellectual curiosity, Carol Rama frequented events and exhibitions with fervor. Rama’s social circle primarily comprised intellectuals from diverse backgrounds beyond the artistic circles, as she remained attuned to the unfolding political and social currents of the time. Rama forged meaningful connections with various Turin families, each contributing to her life in distinctive ways. These families offered assistance, invitations, practical and emotional support for short or longer periods. Among them, two families held particularly profound and enduring bonds with Rama: the Levi and the Accornero families. In her solo exhibitions of 1964, held in both Genoa and Turin, Carol Rama unveiled a series of paintings integrating informal-derived stains with collage elements such as doll’s eyes, metalworking scraps, syringes, stones, and rubber caps, salvaged materials and objects steeped in personal experience.
The 1970s marked a special period in Rama’s life and career. In her last exhibition at La Bussola in 1971, she distanced herself from her previous production and offered paintings with a completely new imprint. On monochrome black or white surfaces, Rama arranged portions of inner tubes in balanced abstract compositions animated by color differences and traces of use. Her collaboration with gallery owner Luciano Anselmino started at the beginning of 1971. Anselmino introduced Carol Rama to Man Ray. The two artists established in the first half of the 1970s a relationship of mutual interest, as evidenced by the works given by Man Ray to Carol Rama and his poetic introduction to the catalog of her exhibition at Il Fauno gallery (1974), as well as by the many works she dedicated to him. Anselmino dedicated two notable exhibitions to the artist before his premature death: in Turin in 1974 at Galleria Il Fauno, where were shown interesting, knitted works in addition to paintings with tires, and in 1976 at Luciano Anselmino’s gallery in Milan, which had just been taken over by Alexandre Jolas.
In 1979 Turin’s Martano Gallery dedicated a major exhibition to Carol Rama. A steadfast supporter of Rama for over a decade, Liliana Dematteis unveiled through the intervention of mutual friend Luigi Campi a series of watercolors from the 1930s and 1940s that had remained concealed from public view until then. In 1980 Giancarlo Salzano opened his own gallery in Piazza Carignano and dedicated an exhibition to the artist presenting more watercolors from the early days alongside later works. The leap to greater notoriety, however, came in 1985, with the first major exhibition, curated by Lea Vergine, spectacularly staged by Achille Castiglioni at the Sagrato del Duomo in Milan. Other exhibitions followed, including showcases at the Galleria dell’Oca in Rome in 1987 and at the Casa del Mantegna, as well as an exhibition curated by Paolo Fossati at the Circolo degli Artisti in Turin in 1989. Meanwhile, the 1980s heralded the emergence of new artistic endeavors by Rama, including striking paintings reverting to figuration with a sophisticated technique and vibrant chromatic palette. These works depicted a diverse array of subjects, ranging from human figures, angels, and animals to intricate geometries, landscapes, and fantastical perspectives on already printed paper, often from the previous century. The pre-existing engraved marks were used as the foundation for her paintings, and seamlessly integrated into the composition.
During this time frame Carol Rama received important public recognition. In 1993 Achille Bonito Oliva dedicated to her a solo exhibition at the XLV Venice Biennale, with an exemplary installation by Corrado Levi. Ten years later, the institution awarded her the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. During the mid-1990s, Rama embarked on a new thematic exploration that would persist into the 2000s. Stirred by televised images on the “mad cow disease”, she created a series of poignant and impactful works encompassing paintings, drawings, and engravings. The engravings, after the splendid series of the Parche (1944-47) and a few scattered proofs during the following years, returned as Rama’s artistic expression after several years as suggested by Fossati.
In 1998 a major retrospective was organized at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, and later at the ICA in Boston, marking the artist’s definitive entry into the international scene. A new retrospective organized by Fondazione Sandretto occured in 2004, then at MART in Rovereto and the Baltic Museum in Gateshead. This was followed by the 2008 exhibition at the Palazzo Ducale in Genoa and the following year’s exhibition at the Isabella Bortolozzi Gallery in Berlin. In 2014 a retrospective was organised a Macba in Barcelona and at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, which was later also shown at the Gam in Turin.
Simultaneously, Rama’s work gained a growing community of admirers worldwide. The Dominique Lévy Gallery (later Lévy Gorvy) in New York has joined the Bortolozzi gallery in promoting her work Since 2016. This trend was mirrored in public exhibitions, with the prestigious New Museum in New York dedicating an expansive retrospective to Rama in the subsequent year, curated by director Massimiliano Gioni.
Rama could not enjoy her newfound national and international recognition for long. She passed away on September 24, 2015, in her home studio in Turin, where she had resided since the 1940s. Her final known work dates back to 2007, marking the conclusion of a prolific and illustrious career spanning over seven decades.