1968 - 1973

In 1968, in Palm Beach, she exhibits her fountain, “The Rainbow,” as well as her bronze castings and weldings, from paper cut-outs. This was followed in 1969-1970 by her last solo exhibitions, which still included some figurative work, in Bari, Rome, New York, Los Angeles and Geneva with Madame Motte, where her work is shown to the Shah of Iran. In 1969, Carla is commissioned to do a life-size bronze portrait of Princess Grace of Monaco and her three children for the Palace in Monaco. She was also commissioned to make a life-size bronze portrait of Nate and Francis Spingold for the Spingold Theater at Brandeis University. This commission from Francis Spingold was the last of her portraits. In 1970, she receives the first of six monumental sculpture commissions by the Shah of Iran for the Palace and the Museum of Modern Art in Teheran. Carla is represented by Marlborough Gallery in Rome, and makes the first in a series of lithographs with Bulla. She then makes a stainless steel model of “The City,” commissioned by Albert Mayer. It was for a public sculpture to be erected in the courtyard of The New School. The project is interrupted by Albert Mayer's death. Carla came back to America in 1970 and establishes her studio in New York at 75th and York. This is where she does her first sculptures in paper and installations, suspending the paper with cord and reed, so that air will make each sheet levitate at its own rhythm, forever changing. The work includes the space it’s in. Her practice of installation art is looked upon suspiciously by the establishment.

Carla then begins working with light and shadow. She also start doing environmental wood structures. Between 1969 and 1970, she makes jewelry and the first of her “Sculptures To Wear.” She exhibits them in Chicago, New York, Paris and Montreal. A documentary is filmed about her New York exhibit by Ruggero Orlando, and is shown by RAI-TV-1: News from New York. She then visits Isamu Noguchi's first studio on Long Island and is impressed. She meets Gittou Knoup, Nevelson and Marisol, who visit her studio in Rome. She has her first solo exhibition of marble floor sculptures and bronze-stainless steel abstraction in Japan at the Hakone Museum. Then she does the public sculpture “1 1/2” for the New Law School, Skydmore Owen and Merryl, installed in Crocker Gardens at Stanford University, dedicated by President Ford. The event is filmed by Abba International NYC. This peoject gets her invited to visit the White House. Stanford graduate students choreograph and perform ballet on campus inspired by Lavatelli's sculptures.

The Italian Chamber of Deputies acquires for the Pinacoteca di Stato in Rome her figurative bronze bas-relief CANTI E GIOCHI, originally made in 1960. Joseph Hirshorn visits the Via Margutta studio to request a donation of work for the future museum in Washington. After which she then travels to Japan, China, India, Persia, Israel, Germany, Holland, France and Greece. Working in stone, she makes objects, tables and lamps and exhibits them in Los Angeles. After she is evicted from Via Margutta Studio in Rome, she is invited by Horace Kadoorie to visit his philanthropic endeavors in Hong Kong. This is where she makes three of her largest weavings. After Cidonio dies in 1972, she starts construction of her own stoneyard in nearby Pietrasanta at what will becomes the Carla Lavtelli Working Place and Sculpture Garden. She destroys all of her plasters of her portraits. She continues to work in stone and paper, and creates a few bronzes, weavings and collages. The first version of “The Fountain With The Permanent Shadow,” a project for a plaza, which is a sun controlled water sculpture.

She begins making models of fountains, included are the models for “The Peace Booth” (installation/performance) and for “Playground.” These were created to teach children about water, earth, wind, flowers, and trees. At the site there is a space for storytelling, a theater for puppets and a band to play on Sundays. A documentary film was made in 1972 by Josh Gawronsky about Carla working at the 75th Street New York Studio. In 1973 the Officina Cidonio is closed. She then executes “Golden Pond” for the Botanical Gardens at Freiburg University in Freiburg, Germany. Then she realizes and sculpts “Stele For a Prayer” and “Stele For Peace” in granite. She also makes “Maps Of Light and Shadow” out of lavagna and white PS marble, and does the weaving of “The Birth Of Light.”