Carla Lonzi (Florence, 6 March 1931 – Milan, 2 August 1982) was an Italian art critic and feminist activist, who is best known as the cofounder of Rivolta Femminile (Feminine Revolt), an Italian feminist collective formed in 1970. Lonzi's most significant works include Autoritratto ("Self-Portrait", 1969); "Writings on Art" (1970); Manifesto di Rivolta femminile ("Manifesto of the Feminine Revolt", 1970); Sputiamo su Hegel, La donna clitoridea e la donna vaginale e altri scritti ("Let’s Spit on Hegel, The Clitoridian Woman and the Vaginal Woman, and Other Writings", 1974); and "Diary of a Feminist" (1977). Personal life Carla Lonzi was born in Florence, Italy, on 6 March 1931 to a middle-class family. Her father owned a small industrial company and her mother dedicated her life to the nurture and education of Lonzi and her four siblings. Her sister Marta Lonzi (1938-2008), an architect, was also a feminist activist. In her early twenties, Lonzi became greatly interested in film and theatre, both as a spectator and creator. This lead her to performance art, a practice she liked for its ability to stage real life experiences and revealing truths. Lonzi did her final dissertation on theatre and graduated from the University of Florence. Later in her career, the lessons she learned from film and the theatre continued to influence her work. In 1955 Lonzi married Mario Lena. In 1960, she gave birth to their son, Battista Lena. Lonzi found married life straining. She and Lena separated in 1963. The following year, in 1964, Lonzi began her relationship with Pietro Consagra, an Italian sculptor. Lonzi and Consagra never married. Their relationship ended in 1969, following the publication of Lonzi's Autorittrato. Art criticism Lonzi began her career as an art critic in the late 1950s. In 1966 she authored a monograph on the work of Surrealist painter Henri Rousseau. In 1969 she published Autorittrato, a book collecting a series of tape-recorded conversations between Lonzi and 14 artists between 1965 and 1969. Autorittrato reworked the role and identity of the art critic by deploying a style of writing revolving around subjectivity and discussion. This style is characterized by a natural flow, the signalling of pauses, and a first-person narrative. Further, Lonzi strayed from the most traditional use of photography, using caption-less, black and white, personal photos of the artists instead of images of their work. Most importantly, Autorittrato revealed Lonzi's theory of creative subjectivity, one which