From Tuesday, December 7 through Saturday, February 5, EDDart presents the exhibition Anna Paparatti, Tantra for everin the spaces of Palazzo Taverna, Rome. The exhibition—the artist’s first retrospective in Italy—traces the evolution of her practice, from the themes explored in the 1960s, linked to Surrealism and the Dada movement, to the canvases of the following decades, developed after her travels to the East, particularly to India and Nepal.
A crucial turning point in the artist’s development is connected to her study of Tantric philosophy, around which much of her pictorial production revolves from the late 1970s through the 1990s. This discovery led her to abandon the playful world of bright colors and flat fields, moving instead toward a personal and original reinterpretation of Eastern iconographies rich in symbolism.
Her work is characterized by a strong sense of seriality, with recurring themes and subjects differentiated by specific symbols and chromatic variations. Mandalas, Portraits of Buddha, Tantras, and Lotus Flowers are among the series presented in the exhibition. Anna Paparatti’s research offers a new perspective on a philosophy that has captured the imagination for over a millennium.
Anna Paparatti
She was born in Reggio Calabria. She moved to Rome in the early 1960s and enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts, where she attended the courses of Toti Scialoja. She later moved to Paris on a scholarship to continue her studies in painting. Her early works show the influence of Surrealism and the Dada movement and revolve around the theme of play in all its facets: imaginary play, the play of numbers, and the play of colors. In Rome, she became part of the extraordinary international artistic milieu of those years, meeting artists such as Mario Schifano, Pino Pascali, Tano Festa, as well as Jannis Kounellis, Cy Twombly, and Sol LeWitt. She became the partner of Fabio Sargentini, with whom she shared the experience of Galleria L’Attico, also producing invitations, flyers, and posters distinguished by her unique handwriting. She acted, lived, and traveled with the Living Theatre for four months during their first celebrated stay in Italy. She traveled to India eleven times, absorbing new stimuli and landscapes, and began a more spiritual line of research connected to Hindu and Buddhist esoteric traditions. In 1990 she exhibited La Mia India at the space of Pio Monti. In 1994 she presented I Love Buddha in New York at the gallery of Annina Nosei. In 2008, her series dedicated to Tantra was the focus of Tantra For Ever at the Biblioteche di Roma. In 2015 she published the book La Pitturessa, edited by Guglielmo Gigliotti, in which she recounts her encounters and relationships with artists, friends, and curators. In 2021 she collaborated with Dior on the set-up project for the Spring/Summer 2022 fashion show. She currently lives and works in Rome.
