Elisa Montessori on Painting: A Language That Will Never Die

Elisa Montessori, born in Genoa on June 18, 1931, reflects on her lifelong practice as a painter in a personal statement dated September 2, 2023. She describes her earliest mark-making on steamed-up kitchen glass, sand, dust, and later with charcoal, chalk, and burning sticks. Montessori studied humanities and later worked in the studio of Mirko Basaldella. Her career spans exhibitions at the São Paulo Biennial and Venice Biennale, as well as museums worldwide. She was married to Olivetti engineer Mario Tchou and later to architect Costantino Dardi. A documentary by Francesco Vaccaro about her life was presented at the Venice Film Festival in 2004. Curator Ilaria Gianni once connected Montessori's work to Pliny the Elder's origin myth of painting as tracing a lover's shadow. Montessori asserts that painting is total, secret, and immortal, seeing herself as a small link in a long chain of research and connection. Her statement is part of a series on painting initiated by Luigi Presicce and continued by gallerist Paola Capata, Filippo La Vaccara, and Alfonso Leto.