Nuorese Cultural DistrictMaria Lai (b. Ulassai, 27 September 1919–d. Cardedu, 16 April 2013) was an Italian artist.
Maria Lai
Description
Her remarkable artistic talent was clear from a young age, and she had an early opportunity to participate, albeit indirectly, in the art world, posing as a model for Francesco Ciusa for a portrait of her deceased little sister.
A few years later, her family decided to enrol her in secondary school in Cagliari, where she met Salvatore Cambosu, the first to recognise her artistic sensibility.
In 1939, she moved to Rome to study at the Fine Arts secondary school. When she completed her studies, she went to Verona and then Venice, where she enrolled in the Fine Arts Academy and took lessons with Arturo Martini.
In 1956, she returned to Rome, and the year after held her first solo exhibition at the Galleria L'Obelisco. Although her work was well received by the critics, Lai felt that she was not living up to her personal expectations and began a period of reflection that brought her closer to the orbit of poets and writers, including Giuseppe Dessì, her neighbour in Rome, with whom she developed a deep friendship and collaborative professional relationship.
Concentrating on Sardinian fables and popular stories, new themes emerged in her work, expressed in the series Telai (Looms), Geografie (Geographies) and Libri cuciti (Sewn Books), which are considered some of her most intense works.
In the 1980s, she started focusing on environmental art, leading to celebrated works like Legarsi alla montagna (Bind Yourself to the Mountain; 1981).
A large number of her works are on view in the contemporary art museum Stazione dell'arte in Ulassai, which is dedicated to Lai and was founded in 2006 thanks to the generous donation of her works.
Her work is also on view at Spazio Ilisso and MAN, Nuoro.