+++
title = "Maria Lai"
+++

# Biography

Maria Lai was born on September 27, 1919 in Ulassai. At the age of three, her parents decided to leave her to their uncles because of her poor health, and Maria remained with them until the age of nine. After a short return to Ulassai, she moved to Cagliari where she studied at the College with her sister Giuliana.
In 1932 she enrolled in the Magistral Institute, where she was taught by Salvatore Cambosu, with whom she established a deep and lasting friendship. In 1939 she decided to settle in Rome to study at the Liceo Artistico, where she followed the lessons of Marino Mazzacurati.
In 1943, because of the war she decided to leave Rome, and moved to Venice to attend the Academy of Fine Arts with Arturo Martini. In 1945 she hurriedly escaped from Venice and after a short period in Verona he returned to Sardinia; in Cagliari from the following year she taught at the Istituto Tecnico Femminile until 1949.
In 1947 she met Giuseppe Dessì in Cagliari.
She exhibited several times in Cagliari and then, in 1957, exhibited at the Galleria L'Obelisco in Rome by Marcello Venturoli. Until 1961 she received notable successes and awards both in Rome and in Sardinia.
For about ten years there will be a phase of silence, she continues to live in Rome but refuses to expose despite the constant stimuli of Marcello Venturoli, a great admirer of his work.
In 1971 she exhibited and Rome at the Schneider Gallery curated by Venturoli several frames.
She now begins a very prolific phase for his art, exhibiting in several museums and galleries and at the Venice Biennale in a collective curated by Mirella Bentivoglio.
In 1981 "Legarsi alla montagna" takes place in Ulassai, the collective performance for which it is best known today.
In 1982 she created the Via Crucis for the church of Ulassai and with Costantino Nivola, Guido Strazza and Luigi Veronesi the "Lavatoio di Ulassai", which was completed in 1989.
In 1983 she continued his interventions in Orotelli with "L'alveare del poeta", a work dedicated to Salvatore Cambosu and "La disfatta dei varani" in Camerino in the province of Macereata.
Between 1992 and 1993 he made "La strada del rito", "Le capre cucite" and "La scarpata" in Ulassai.
In 1993 she left Rome and settled in Cardedu.
In 1995 she began his collaboration with the theater company "Fueddu and Gestu" with the representation "Maria Pietra".
From 1999 to 2001 he dedicated himself to the project for the Sabina Oil Museum in Castel Nuovo di Farfa.
Since 2002 she has carried out several interventions on the territory of Ulassai : "I pensieri sull'arte", "Il muro del groviglio" (2004) and "La casa delle inquietudini" (2005)
In 2004 she was awarded the honorary degree in Literature at the University of Cagliari for the strong narrative and conceptual trait of her work, which is carried out however with traditional, archaic techniques.
On July 8, 2006 the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Art Station, was inaugurated in the old tenements of the former station of Ulassai, with the donation of about 140 works by the artist, among the most significant of his journey.
2009 is "The capture of the wind wing" at the wind farm of Ulassai.
In 2011 he won the prestigious "Chamber of Deputies Award for the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy" with the work "Orme di leggi".
In 2012 he participated with a space of his own at Pulse "International Contemporary Art Fair" in Miami.
She died in Cardedu on 16 April 2013.