Born in Como on 5 December 1911, Carla Prina attended the Brera Academy of Fine Arts where she graduated in painting in 1936. The same year she left for Rhodes where she enrolled at the Institute of High Culture, while the following year she was in Rome to attend the Free School of Nude at the French Academy. Back in Como, in the 1940s she frequented Manlio Rho's studio, a meeting place for the abstract artists Mario Radice, Carla Badiali, Aldo Galli and the architects Giuseppe Terragni, Pietro Lingeri and Carlo Cattaneo. With them in 1942 he exhibited at the 23rd Venice Biennale in the Futurist Pavilion and in 1943 at the Quadriennale in Rome. In Como he met the architect Alberto Sartoris, with whom he married and moved to Lausanne. Together with him she was among the founders of the Escuela de Altamira, which led to her association with Juan Mirò. She died in Cossonay, Switzerland, on 28 March 2008.
Carla Prina