The MAXXI museum is paying homage to the Italian painter Maria Lai.
Holding the sun by the hand is the big exhibition that MAXXI has dedicated to the great artist Maria Lai (1919 - 2013) on the occasion of the centenary of her birth. More than 100 of the artists’ works will be exhibited, from the early Sixties to her final pieces. Curated by Bartolomeo Pietromarchi and Luigia Lonardelli, both her sculptures, sewn books, public works and her looms are on display. The loom is a traditional form of story telling, and is considered to be one of the most important form used amongst rural women in Sardinia.
The name of the exhibition, the original title is in Italian, Tenendo per mano il sole, and is a tribute to one of her previous works which is described as a “sewn fable”. Lai was born in Italy and her works has been featured at Documenta 14 and the Venice Biennale 2017.
Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo
Via Guido Reni, 4A, 00196 Roma RM