Maria Lai

She was born in Ulassai, Nuoro, Sardinia, on 27 September 1919. She studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia under Arturo Martini, graduating in 1943.

The M77 gallery in Milan describes her work thus:{{quote|[O]ne of the most significant artists on the Italian art scene in the postwar period. An eclectic artist, Maria Lai gave voice to her artistic vein through weaving, embroidery, writing, sculpture, and drawing.}}

In 1981 Lai created the event Legarsi alla montagna (Bound to the Mountain) in Ulassai, over three days. Blue ribbons totalling {{cvt|27|km}} linked the houses in the village to each other and to the summit of Mount Gedili which overlooks the village. Residents connected their houses to their neighbours', sometimes with a bow or a loaf of bread to signify particular friendship, or tied taut to represent tensions between households. The project was recorded in a documentary named Maria Lai legare e collegare (Tie and connect). The use of blue ribbon alludes to a local tale of a child whose life was saved when she ran out of a cave to chase a floating blue ribbon just before the cave collapsed in a landslip.{{cite web |last1= |first1= |title=Lost (and Found) Artist Series: The Visual Poetry of Maria Lai |url=https://magazine.artland.com/lost-and-found-artist-series-maria-lai/ |website=Artland Magazine |access-date=3 March 2025 |date=26 June 2020}}{{cite web |last1=Ford |first1=Lauren Moya |title=Why an Italian Village Tied Itself to a Mountain |url=https://hyperallergic.com/669307/why-an-italian-village-tied-itself-to-a-mountain-elena-pontiggia-maria-lai/ |website=Hyperallergic |access-date=3 March 2025 |date=7 September 2021}} This was followed by various other installations in different towns, and a series of artworks in Ulassai which remain and form an open air art exhibition throughout the town.{{cite web |title=Opere del museo a cielo aperto "Maria Lai" |url=https://www.stazionedellarte.com/ulassai/ |website=www.stazionedellarte.com |publisher=Stazione Dell'Arte |access-date=3 March 2025 |language=Italian}}

Lai's work has been exhibited in group exhibitions from 1943 onwards and in solo and two-person shows from 1953, in many venues in Italy but including exhibitions in Stockholm, Sweden in 1958, Sydney, Australia in 1983, three university libraries in Germany in 1989 and Maria Lai incontra la Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana at the Vatican Library in 2022. Her work is held in 14 public collections in Italy and in the Centre Pompidou in Paris. One year after her death an exhibition of her work called Maria Lai. Ricucire il mondo (Sewing the World) was held in three Sardinian venues: Cagliari, Nuoro and Ulassai.{{cite web |first=Gabi | last=Scardi|title=Maria Lai. Ricucire il mondo |url=https://www.domusweb.it/en/art/2014/09/05/maria_lai_ricucireilmondo.html |website=www.domusweb.it |access-date=3 March 2025 |language=en-gb |date=5 September 2014}} A major retrospective exhibition of her work was held in the MAXXI (National Museum of 21st-century arts) in Rome in 2019, to mark the centenary of her birth. The exhibition was titled Tenendo per mano il sole (Holding the Sun by the Hand), which was the title of a "sewn fable" she had created in 1984.{{cite web |last1=Cardin |first1=Elena |title=Maria Lai: The Infinite Thread of Imagination |url=https://awarewomenartists.com/en/magazine/maria-lai-le-fil-infini-de-limagination/ |website=AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes |access-date=2 March 2025 |date=9 November 2019}}

140 of Lai's works are displayed in the former railway station of Ulassai, a contemporary art museum named "{{ill|Stazione dell'Arte|it}}", which Lai established in 2006.{{cite web |title=Stazione Dell'Arte - Museo d'arte contemporanea |url=https://www.stazionedellarte.com/ |website=www.stazionedellarte.com |access-date=2 March 2025}}{{cite web |title=Art: Maria Lai |url=https://www.ulassaiturismo.it/en/art/ |website=Ulassai Turismo |access-date=2 March 2025}}{{cite web |title=Ulassai, Maria Lai Open Air Museum |url=https://www.sardegnacultura.it/en/articles/ulassai-museo-a-cielo-aperto-maria-lai |website=SardegnaCultura |access-date=2 March 2025 |language=en}}

Christie's have sold several of Lai's works: as examples, her 1979 Autobiografia 118, of "thread, wood and canvas laid down on cardboard" and measuring {{cvt|22|x|15|cm|in}} was sold in 2021 for 18,750 Euros,{{cite web |title=Maria Lai (Ulassai 1919-2013 Cardedu) Autobiografia 118 |url=https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6326653 |publisher=Christie's |access-date=3 March 2025 |date=16 June 2021}} and her 1989 Lenzuolo (Bed Sheet), of "thread and fabric laid down on fabric" and {{cvt|56|x|91|in|cm}} sold in 2018 for £150,000 after a pre-sale estimate of £20,000-£30,000.{{cite web |title=Maria Lai (1919 – 2013) Lenzuolo (Bed Sheet) |url=https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6162777 |publisher=Christie's |access-date=3 March 2025 |date=4 October 2018}}

In 2004, Lai was awarded an Honorary Degree in Literature by the University of Cagliari.{{cite web |title=Maria Lai: CV |url=https://www.m77gallery.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/M77-CV-Maria-Lai.pdf |publisher=M77 gallery |access-date=2 March 2025 }}

Maria Lai died on 16 April 2013 in Cardedu, Province of Nuoro, where she had lived since the 2000s.{{cite web |title=Maria Lai [in English] |url=https://www.stazionedellarte.com/en/marialai/ |website=www.stazionedellarte.com |publisher=Stazione Dell'Arte - Museo d'arte contemporanea |access-date=3 March 2025}} She is buried in the cemetery of Ulassai.

File:Museo di Ulassai.JPG

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• [https://www.m77gallery.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/M77-CV-Maria-Lai.pdf Maria Lai CV] published by M77 Gallery, updated to at least 2023, including lists of exhibitions

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Category:1919 births

Category:2013 deaths

Category:20th-century Italian women artists

Category:21st-century Italian women artists

Category:People from the Province of Nuoro

Category:Sardinian women

Category:Artists from Sardinia

Category:Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia alumni

Category:University of Cagliari alumni

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