The Highlands Current: Art in all Directions

November 22, 2024

Maria Lai "Notturno n.2," 1968 Oil or acrylic, mixed media on linen. 36 x 36 in. (15 x 15 cm). Private Collection. Photo by Richard-Max Tremblay. Courtesy © 2024 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/SIAE, Rome.

Like many female artists living in Italy after World War II, Maria Lai masked her gender by signing paintings with an initial instead of her first name. At a 2004 lecture, she recalled one influential teacher provoking her by saying, “The world of art is a great loom, and women make the warp, but the weaver is man.”

Yet he knew talent when he saw it and kept Lai as his only female student. Then, she became renowned. In 2011, officials at the national Parliament installed one of her works to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the country’s unification.