Untitled

Rama applied ink and gouache with gestural freedom, allowing drips and splatters to form a dense, irregular ground. Shellac was used to seal and intensify certain areas, adding a glossy, almost bodily sheen. The plastic eyes, physically affixed to the paper, introduce a tactile, three-dimensional disruption. Her method prioritizes material presence over formal control, creating a raw, intimate atmosphere.

Rama produced this work during a period of relative obscurity, before her mid-1980s reappraisal by curator Lea Vergine. Though not exhibited widely at the time, the piece aligns with her sustained exploration of eroticism and bodily autonomy. Its survival reflects Rama’s habit of preserving even minor works, later recognized as vital to understanding her artistic evolution.

In the late 1960s, Rama worked outside Italy’s dominant art movements, developing a personal visual language informed by her medical training and experiences with illness. Her use of discarded materials and taboo subjects distinguished her from contemporaries. This work emerged amid broader cultural shifts in gender and sexuality, though Rama’s approach remained idiosyncratic and unaligned with any formal group.

Rama’s integration of everyday objects into fine art anticipated later feminist and postmodern practices. Her refusal to sanitize or idealize the body influenced subsequent generations of artists working with materiality and identity. This drawing, once overlooked, now stands as an early example of her radical reimagining of drawing as a site of psychological and physical disruption.