Ketty La Rocca e...

cm 20 x 35

Ketty La Rocca’s artistic practice can be situated within the context of the mid- 1960s experimental art advanced by the Gruppo 70, the members of which included Eugenio Miccini, Lamberto Pignotti, Luciano Ori, and Mirella Bentivoglio, among others. The movement led reflection on the metaphorical value of the graphic symbol, displaying “the word” as the subject of artistic representation. Ketty La Rocca’s early work explored the invasive reach of the language of communication in contemporary society. In keeping with the group’s poetics, the artist produced a series of works that explored the potential of the mass-media image through collage, a medium that she later abandoned to pursue an independent direction, focusing on the graphic/iconic reach of the advertising symbol. In 1966, La Rocca began to use tempera and acrylic, pictorially recreating the graphics typical of the advertising world, a language that had a growing presence in Italy during those years. The reference to the commercial world was reinforced by her use of supports that evoked commercial art in size and format. La Rocca’s search for a more direct and simplified relationship with the public led her to host television programs for the deaf, communicating with her hands. These works are also reminiscent of her rare, but important, work as a performer. In the final years of her activity, the artist expressed her Feminist leanings in a rereading of the icons of cinema and art history, bringing the message of her early series "Cartelloni" to the extreme In "e…", as in the other works, the artist rejected iconographic value, painting the letters using italic typography stencils.

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J. Russi Kirschner, “You and I: The Art of Ketty La Rocca”, Art Forum, XXXI, March 1993, 7, pp. 81-83. M. Bentivoglio, Et in principio erat, in E. Belsito (ed.), Ketty La Rocca, J, La Spezia 1999, pp. 9-12. L. Saccà (ed.), La vita è un’altra cosa, in Omaggio a Ketty La Rocca, exhibition catalogue (Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni; Monsummano Terme, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea e del Novecento), Pisa 2001. E. Del Becaro, L’intermedialità al femminile: l’opera di Ketty La Rocca, Milan 2008. F. Gallo, R. Perna (eds.), Ketty La Rocca. Nuovi studi, Milan 2015.

Foto Roberto Galasso

Purchased from Galleria Emi Fontana, Milan

Painting