Air Mail: Maria Lai. A Journey to America

Maria Lai was born and raised in the Sardinian commune Ulassai. Her earliest works—paintings, drawings, and sculptures—were inspired by the natural landscapes of her youth. Travel widened Lai’s world physically and artistically, beginning with a stint in postwar Rome during the radical Arte Povera movement. She also found profound inspiration in the art of Jackson Pollock and the creativity of Native American people. Lai began to fuse ancient traditions with contemporary art, keeping a foot in her native country through her love of the traditional Sardinian loom. One of her most famous works, To Tie Oneself to the Mountain, was a fusion of sculpture and performance in Ulassai, in which she tied 1,000 locals to one another and to the land with 17 miles of ribbon that crossed the region’s natural canyons. Magazzino Italian Art explores the decades-long trajectory of Lai’s storied career through 100 works, most of which have never been exhibited in America. —Lucy Horowitz