Verdeargento 1969

Carla Accardi made Verdeargento with paint, layering it onto a clear plastic surface. The colour scheme here is so minimal. A few greens, a few greys. Look at how she’s built up these looping, coiling shapes, almost like scribbles or doodles, one on top of the other. The translucent support makes it so that the composition hovers between surface and depth. We see the layers, like looking through foliage or into a pond. Accardi was interested in the materiality of paint, its texture, its ability to create form and space. She was part of a generation of artists who were pushing the boundaries of what painting could be, playing with abstraction and gesture. There's a kinship to be found here with the work of someone like Joan Mitchell, who built up abstract landscapes with loose, gestural marks. Verdeargento offers no fixed meaning, instead it invites us to wander through its layers, to find our own connections and interpretations.