Artists

The conceptual Artist Maria Lai was born in 1919 in Ulassai, a small town in Sardinia. She was passionate about art from an early age. Maria attended art school in Rome and then enrolled in a sculpture course at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice. She became famous for her textile works, which were the result of a meticulous search for new materials and new forms of expression, such as sewn books and canvases, breads and earthenware.

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A particular anecdote tells us a lot about Maria Lai’s artistic intuition. It is said that the artist, BY dropping a cotton thread to the ground over and over again from the same height, had realised how the line drawn by the thread assumed different appearances each time. So she began to exercise her creativity, first using old looms (inspired by poor art), and later Spanish needles of embroidery thread.

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Women, according to Sardinian popular tradition, have the task of embroidering their own costumes; however, the technique of sewing was learned and used by this young artist exclusively with the aim of giving us unique masterpieces. After a small moment of discouragement due to the difficulty of making a name for herself in the artistic environment during those years, she decided, with great courage and tenacity, to move to Rome where she met Arturo Martini. He taught her numerous sculptural techniques, gave her lessons on emptiness, shadows and the volume of the stone.

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In 1981 Maria Lai created one of the most important works of her career entitled: "Binding to the mountain". The work attempts to reunite every family in the town of Ulassai by using about 15 cm wide blue ribbons positioned around the houses. However, some grudges and resentments are incurable, so the artist leaves a tuft on the doorstep of these houses, making it clear that the problems have not yet been solved. This was however, met with some resentment, so the artist left a tuft on the doorstep of those houses, making it clear that the problems are yet to be solved.

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Lai’s works are exhibited in some of the most prestigious public institutions, including the National Central Library of Florence, the Museum of Sabina Oil , Castelnuovo di Farfa (Rieti), the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA), the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rome , the MUSMA in Matera, the Art Museum of the Province of Nuoro, the Municipal Art Gallery of Cagliari, the Masedu Contemporary Art Museum, the Soddu-Tanda Collection by Pietro Soddu in Benetutti, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto. (MART).