Vortice del vento verde

The title of the work alludes only to the background colour. Yet the full force of the emotional impact on the viewer comes from the matte yellow of the form that fluctuates in the pictorial space (as though it had been splashed onto the surface by a sudden gust of wind) and from the truly Matissian purple, used for the marks that drift aimlessly in the body of the ”figure” and the background.
In this large painting, which measures close to five metres, Accardi emphasizes her proximity to decorative art. In itself this implies art’s ”gratuitous” purpose, as it were, in works that are not meant to carry any message and aim at nothing but the joy of the beholder. In her later, still fruitful maturity, Accardi succeeded in freeing herself from every obligation of close dialogue with the more speculative aspects of painting (although she remained extremely curious, especially regarding the work of young artists). And – as happens here – she pushed the boundaries by betting only on the bare minimum she needed to forge her path. A journey of sign and colour that – despite the close conversations she enjoyed with many of the leading critics of her time, starting with Michel Tapié – was entirely and indelibly her own.