Maria Mulas settled in Milan in 1956 and began her artistic work in the medium of photography in the mid-1960s Between 1965 and 1976, she mainly took photographs of the world of theatre and portraits, while at the same time conducting research into so-called “social” rituals
“If photography is a way of telling a story without being interrupted (or contradicted),” Lea Vergine wrote accurately about her in 1985, “it could be argued, in the case of Maria Mulas, that hers is not just a narrative but a pinwheel, a firework even, with clownish and chilling results at the same time”
She held her first solo exhibition at the Diaframma Gallery in Milan, where she exhibited a collection of portraits that reveal a subtle and merciless social criticism
She presented a series of portraits of international intellectuals and artists at Il Milione Gallery in Milan (Biennale 78 – PA…
C 79), where technical experimentation with the wide-angle 20 mm lens merge with the choice of the subjects, with its symbolic values: images are ideas
Together with Lea Vergine and commissioned by the City of Milan, she investigated the generation of women artists who worked in the ranks of the historic avant-garde: she produced a series of portraits of women artists in their studios (Sonia Delaunay, Meret Oppenheim, Bice Lazzari, Marcelle Can, etc), portraits that were exhibited at Palazzo Reale in Milan and at Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, in the exhibition L’altra metà dell’avanguardia [The Other Half of the Avant-garde](1980)
1982
At the Unione Culturale in Palazzo Carignano, Turin, she presented a series of conceptual panels on architecture, in which objects and architectural details are altered and reinvented through variations in distances and shooting angles
1984
At the Scuola di San Giovanni Evangelista in Venice, she exhibited Il Quartetto [Quartet] (in sequences recalling the structure of a film), portraits of the artists Beuys, Fabro, Cucchi and Nauman
1985
In Parma, in the exhibition space of the Mercante in Fiera, the exhibition Maria Mulas: Fotografia 1970-1980 [Maria Mulas: Photography 1970-1980] was held
1988
At Il Milione Gallery in Milan, she presented a series of portraits, the result of expressive experimentation carried out without the intervention of a lens that deforms or enhances the subjects but, as always, is aimed wholly at studying the close relationship between character and behaviour If, in her architectural photographs, Maria Mulas is concerned with the anomalous detail which, through the use of light, modifies the meaning of the work, in her portraits, on the other hand, she aims for synthesis And just as the painter always paints the same picture, and the writer always writes the same book, she retraces and re-examines the same cultural, social situations and mores
1989
She exhibited in the Chiostro dello Juvarra in Turin
1990
At the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Paternò, then at the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Bologna, she presented the exhibition Vis à Vis, a series of portraits of intellectuals
At the Cascina Grande in Rozzano (Milan): Maria Mulas: ritratti di artiste ieri e oggi [Maria Mulas: Portraits of Women Artists Yesterday and Today]
1991
Palazzo dei Diamanti and Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Ferrara: Maria Mulas 1970-1990 – Scrittura della luce [Writing of light] Gallery of Modern Art of Suzzara
She published a calendar with portraits of 13 women artists for Edizioni ADONAI
1992
At the Associazione Scenidea in Salerno: Donne di teatro e teatro di donne [Women of the Theatre and the Theatre of Women]
At Pasquini Castle in Castiglioncello: Sessantacinque ritratti più uno [Sixty-five portraits plus one]
At the USIS (United States Information Service) of Milan, Maria Mulas – New York Flash
At the Arsenale Gallery of Iseo (Brescia)
1993
Feltrinelli bookshop in Via Manzoni in Milan: Reportage per un editore [Reportage for a Publisher]
Rocca Paolina in Perugia: Tricromie – Zapping – Riprese in diretta [Trichromes – Zapping – Live shooting]
Plurima Gallery, Udine: Ossessione [Obsession]
1994
Vigato Gallery, Alessandria (with Marco Rotelli)
In Morterone (Lecco), for the Cultural Association “Amici di Monterone”: Ri-tratti [Portraits] 1974-1994
Sumithra Arte Studio of Ravenna: Rursum Felix: Ravenna vista da Maria Mulas [Rursum Felix: Ravenna seen by Maria Mulas]
1995
At the Venice Biennale she took part in the exhibition organised by the Istituto Artistico dei fratelli Alinari, Florence: 1895-1995 – L’Io e il suo doppio [1895-1995 – The Ego and its Double] (curated by Italo Zannier)
Also for the Biennale, as part of the exhibition Identità e differenza – Libri d’artiste [Identity and Difference – Female Artists’ Books], she presented her work I dinosauri e le rose: [Dinosaurs and Roses] a study on a certain type of portrait, characterised by a narrative rhythm
Bocconi University, Milan: Frammenti di un centesimo di secondo [Fragments of a hundredth of a second], curated by ISU Bocconi
Gallery Il Cancello, Milan
1996
Gallery Il Milione, Milan: Scomposizioni [Decompositions]
Works by Maria Mulas are exhibited in various modern art museums around the world (Sydney, Beijing, Edinburgh, etc)
She collaborates regularly with various Italian and foreign publications and with the major Italian newspapers
1998
At the Palazzo dell’Arengario in Milan: Miraggi [Mirages]
1999
Festival of Photography in Lecco
2001
Al di là delle cose: visioni di quattro fotografi Tentella, Agosti, Mulas, Alimonti, [Beyond Things: Visions of Four Photographers Tentella, Agosti, Mulas, Alimonti] at Museo Pecci, Prato
Maria Mulas Luce su misura [Light Made to Measure], at the Galleria Patrizia Poggi, Ravenna
2002
Maria Mulas Ritratti/architetture [Maria Mulas Portraits/Architectures], at the Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, formerly Mercato Civico, Tortolì
Dialogo con Maria Mulas La fotografia come arte, [Dialogue with Maria Mulas Photography as Art] at the Centro Culturale Santa Maria della Pietà, Cremona
2003
At the Spazio Belforte Arte Contemporanea, Livorno and at Studio Guastalla Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Milan, she had the solo exhibition Metamorfosi [Metamorphosis]
Maria Mulas is the author of important photography books: Milano vista da… [Milan seen from…] (1973), Hans Richter (1976) and Annotazioni sul linguaggio di Hans Richter [Notes on the Language of Hans Richter] (1978) and Sul linguaggio organico di Henry Moore [On the Organic Language of Henry Moore] (1977)
