Anna Maria Terracini was born in Algiers where her parents took refuge after leaving Italy in 1938 to flee from racial laws.

Her father Enrico, who was the Italian Consul, fully dedicated himself to the cause of emigrants and he was so devoted to his duties that they overshadowed his family.

Her mother Jeanne Scebat was a writer and translator, she was such a sweet as well as being very understanding, she loved helping people with problems.

Both parents belonged to a Jewish trading family. They were aware of being victim of persecution and the awareness of belonging to a lesser race made her feel deeply hurt.

During her life she kept travelling from one countries to another and because of it, she attended different schools since she was a little child and that didn’t give her the chance to make friend with the other children. She lived in Switzerland for 6 years (Grigioni Canton).

In 1952 her father was nominated Consul in Dakar. The transfer to Black Africa was shocking. Their lives changed from strict rules in a very hot climate country where the physical resistance and moral effects were given a good challenge.

Because she couldn’t bear the hot weather she moved to Grasse in France with her mother. The separation was another shock for her and the continuous changing of school, languages and lifestyle led her to have mixed emotions.Those were the feelings that led her into painting and made her spend moments of peace of mind. But painting would also bring her into seclusion and inner conflicts, boosting in her desire to paint.

The visit in the 1954, to Biennale di Venezia will definitely decide her nomination as a painter. She was attracted by the abstract compositions that jolted her memories in a  figurative way.

The magic of fantasy, the hope to reveal the invisible where people said: that doesn’t look like anything. Anna Maria knew that an object or nature could be patiently taken apart thanks to the colors and layout and not just a simple form of confrontation with pure painting and the countless possibility of interpretation of same.

Writer and french art critic Denis Lavalle writes that she never stopped to wonder about her primitive lines that release themselves from a landscape and her work of art, that becomes another rich and interesting thought.