Maria Murgia Biography
Maria Murgia was born in Ossi, near Sassari, in 1935. She comes from a family descending from the Sardinian barony; his father Salvatore Murgia is a wine producer and his mother Gesuina, a dynamic and intelligent woman, a solid and profound image of the historic Sardinian matriarchy, will have an essential role in the cultural formation and in the most important choices of the artist. Maria Murgia, little more than a young girl, in Sassari at the "Il Cancello" gallery, had the opportunity to meet the artist Aligi Sassu who, having seen the young girl's first works, encouraged her to continue her artistic studies. There were other meetings with Sassu and, in particular many years later, in Thiesi in 1989, on the occasion of the inauguration of a museum where one of the Maestro's first murals is exhibited who, later, visiting an exhibition of the Murgia, in addition to complimenting her career, he defined her as "the painter of color" and, prophetically, the artist of 2000. In 1957 she married Giovanni Fancellu, also from Ossi, and moved to Venice, a city where she lived for ten years, frequenting its artistic circles and following the lessons of Virgilio Guidi, very significant for his training path. An episode from the Venetian years, bizarre but revealing of the artist's temperament, is when, during an edition of the Film Festival, she was noticed among the public by Carlo Ponti and Dino De Laurentiis and invited to participate in a film: Murgia calmly declined the invitation, claiming that art was his only aspiration. For four years he returned to live in Sardinia, in Cagliari and on the island of Maddalena. In that period he studied at the Art Institute of Sassari. Since 1974 she has lived in the city of La Spezia and until the end of the 1970s she began teaching school, as director of a nursery school. Precisely in these years he began his artistic career with passion and conviction. The first personal exhibition on November 8, 1975, at "Studio 13" directed by Andrea Occhipinti. The curator of the exhibition and Murgia's first art critic on that occasion was Professor Nicola Rilli, important for his historical studies on the Etruscans and for a reinterpretation of the figure of Pinocchio. A canvas from Murgia is part of the collection dedicated to Pinocchio and donated by Rilli to the municipality of Collodi. In 1976 he exhibited at the "Sagittarius" gallery in Terni and, in that period, he held many exhibitions in Umbria, enjoying great success among collectors. We remember, in the same years, the frequenting of various artists, including Manuel Campus and the participation in artistic events in Spoleto during the Festival dei Due Mondi; the meeting in 1977, on the occasion of a solo show in Terni, with the great artist Renato Guttuso, who greatly admired the colors of Murgia's works and, in agreement with the artist, commented on the particular richness and brilliance of the artistic talents in the islands Italian. Also in 1977 we highlight the delivery of the prestigious Marc'Aurelio Award in Rome, received from the hands of the actress Silvana Pampanini. In 1978 we remember the meeting with Pietro Annigoni in the Palazzo Pretorio in Sesto Fiorentino which hosted a solo exhibition of the Murgia organized by Nicola Rilli. In 1979, during the exhibition at the Palazzo del Podestà in Borgo San Lorenzo (FI), she met the art dealer Franco Cardilicchia who invited her to exhibit in Florence in his famous gallery GAI International Art Gallery in via de' Tornabuoni, with the presentation by the writer Dante Maffia. Cardilicchia was the first and only dealer who made the artist sign an exclusive contract for the works, but after a few months Murgia refused to work in series and preferred to continue painting for the love of art. Another important date is 1981, the year in which the "Maria Murgia art studio" opened in Porto Cervo for the summer period, active until the early nineties. Murgia boasts the official title of painter of the Costa Smeralda; his works become part of collections of important personalities. He is present as a guest of Prince Aga Khan at the awards ceremonies and events of the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda. We remember, in 1983, the special invitation to a concert by Maria Carta at the Cala di Volpe hotel: both, in singing and painting, spokespersons for art in Sardinia. In 1985 he furnished one of the two official rooms of the "Zeffiro" ship of the Italian Navy with his works, together with the artist Remo Squillantini and Fausto Maria Liberatore. In 1987 he opened the "Athena" art gallery in La Spezia, under the direction of his daughter Giusy, also based in Lerici. Subsequently, the "Punto Arte" gallery was born, directed by his son Marco. Since the 1980s, Murgia has participated in numerous fairs in Italy and abroad and her intense activity continues, never disdaining to compete with the general artistic panorama and opening herself up to experimenting with new means and new expressive techniques, which have led her today to being, in digital art, one of the most avant-garde Italian artists. Furthermore, throughout his artistic career, he boasts the experience of consulting young artists who, followed by important art critics such as Giorgio Segato, Pierre Restany, Tommaso Paloscia, etc. they later established themselves in the art world. October 18, 2010 marks the first broadcast on the Telemarket television station, with the presentation of digital and traditional works to the public; since then there have been numerous broadcasts and specials on Maria Murgia's work. In 2012, from a meeting with the Mayor of Ossi's hometown, Prof. Pasquale Lubinu, an agreement was born for the creation, through a donation, of an art gallery dedicated to Murgia's works ranging from the early 1970s to today. On 20 July 2014, her husband Giovanni, the undisputed promoter of his wife's artistic activity, to whom she dedicated the Maria Murgia Art Gallery built in the municipal halls of Ossi, passed away after 57 years of marriage. On 25 January 2015 Maria Murgia participates live at the television studios of the Meeting Arte in Vercelli in the presentation of the exhibition/auction of 30 photomosaics. On 19 March 2015 the artist was awarded the honorary citizenship of Ossi (SS) which will be delivered on 26 November 2016 with a ceremony in the Baronial Palace. Also at the invitation of the Meeting Arte, Murgia is part of the jury of 20 internationally renowned artists for the 39th edition of "The model for art 2015" with the final evening on October 31st at the Grand Hotel Villa Carlotta in Belgirate on Lake Maggiore. In 2016 there were two interviews on national television channels: on 3 March on Rete 7 in the program Contemporary Artists and on 14 April on Canale Italia 135 at the Portobello studios in Genoa for the presentation of an exhibition of photomosaics.
