Abstract Composition

Carla Prina was the most international of the artists from Como partly because after her marriage she lived with her husband, the architect Alberto Sartoris, in Cossonay, near Lausanne, creating a link between the group of abstract artists from Como and those in the rest of Europe. Futurist rhythms and neo-plastic structural rigour coexist in the paintings of between 1939 and 1942, the period to which this composition belongs. It is one of her first truly mature works, produced after her training at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, followed by working alongside the painters Rho and Radice, for whom she had been their assistant. Her painting is not without metaphysical suggestions, which can also be detected in her compositions. In her work, geometry is far from mathematical rigour, imbued as it is with feeling, lyricism and tension, thanks to the drawing, the generally soft and muted colours, and the fluid rather than rigid geometrical shapes. (E. Di Raddo)