Luigi Gay (Moriago della Battaglia 1904 - Treviso 1980) is inscribed in the birth lists of the Moriago City with the surname Gai. He changes the surname after the return from France because the origin of their ancestors seem to come from the Greek Peninsula. Luigi Gai, artistically, thus born with the surname Gay.
Luigi Gai fifth of eight children of a family of peasant origins, his father Giovanni Gai descends from the branch of Pata. He lived his childhood and adolescence in his native Moriago, located where the Treviso hills, gently draw as in the great plains are bathed at noon from the great bed of the Piave. These places, the scene of bloody battles during the first world war, will be etched indelibly in the hearts and mind of the painter. Certainly their beauty and amenities exercised a great charm in the young Luigi affecting much of his future artistic career. As an adult, thinking of his childhood, Gai liked to recall his work as a farmer in the field, with his father, to plow the earth with a plow pulled by oxen, to harvest and transport the wheat with a big cart, to form bales of hay and then carry them in his cart pulled by horses to the barn until his father, or working in carpentry helping older brothers to nail door frames or build furniture for the home. He recalled later that evening, the whole family would gather in the kitchen next to the fireplace with a plate of polenta and milk for dinner, ending the evening in the barn, heated by oxen and cows, to make the wire.
By attending evening classes at the School of Pieve di Soligo - during the day you had to work the fields - Luigi discovers his passion for drawing and art.
Life however Moriago was extremely hard, especially in the postwar reconstruction period, so Gai decides to emigrate to France in the Alps of Savoy, attracted by the lure of finding a job in the French railway. But things go differently, and after several years of hardship and hard work, back around 1930 to his hometown, determined to cultivate his own artistic passion exploded powerfully in France to devote himself to painting.
In 1930 Moriago again from Rome, with the intent to seek financial support to Edda Mussolini. In the Capital comes after a walking trip of about six months, during which draws people to survive in the countries he meets, swapping a portrait in pencil or charcoal with a bowl of soup and doing various jobs. According to some biographers, the opportunity to Gai to be known in Rome is the marriage of the daughter of Mussolini, Edda, with Count Gian Galeazzo Ciano. The painter is able to send the bride a painting, perhaps a portrait of herself, as a wedding gift. Appreciative of the welcome gift, Edda report to the Head of the Ministry of Education that grants a sum of two hundred pounds and three scholarships to the young unknown artist (this document is preserved in the family Gai).
Gai should return soon from Rome to Venice for an operation for appendicitis and then Moriago, where he resumed his work as "Pitor" portraying everything that came within shot: his countrymen to the most unexpected corners of the country, still life or more. In this activity, in 1932, he was noticed by Giovanni Durante, mayor of Moriago, while drawing with extreme care and precision the ancient Tower of the Da Camino, partially destroyed by the great war. The mayor, impressed by the skill in drawing, report Luigi Gai to the painter Emma Ciardi (1879 1933), daughter of the famous painter Guglielmo Ciardi (1842 1917). In the summer of that year Emma Ciardi gives the first lessons in painting in his Refrontolo Villa, located about ten kilometers from Moriago and near Pieve di Soligo.
It is the same Ciardi to spur him to the artistic development, hosting it in the family palace in Venice, introduced him to various personalities in the artistic making known as the painter Guido Cadorin (1892 1976), the painters Mario Varagnolo (1901 1971), Felice Carena (1879 1966), Carlo Dalla Zorza (1903 1977), the sculptress Marta Sammartini and especially Lina Rosso (1888 1975), who together with her teacher will then Cadorin of figurative painting at 'Academy and will have a decisive role in its activities and stays in Venice.
Luigi Gai reacted enthusiastically to the stimulating environment Venetian art, exhibiting some drawings in 1937 at the Galleria Bevilacqua La Masa, a group exhibition organized by the Inter-Fascist Syndicate of Fine Arts in the Venetian period, participate in the artistic laboratory of Cā Pesaro. His works towards the School of Burano remain influenced by the freshness and directness of these works, particularly those of Gino Rossi (1884 1949), Umberto Moggioli (1886 1919), Pio Semeghini (1878 1964) for example. In 1948 he participated in the National Contest of Painting Burano and won the fourth prize. The memory of these works will return to the surface frequently in its lagoon and river views and still life.
He attended painting courses at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice, achieving in 1949, at 45, the Diploma in Art Design and materials in public and private schools. He starts in the same year as teaching in Belluno from 1949 to 1951, at the Accademia Albertina in Turin from 1952 to 1953, in 1954 in Treviso, Asolo in 1955, and finally, since 1956, in Trento, where concludes his work as a teacher in 1966.
Until the mid-50s, Gai "lives" the life of the Venetian artists, cultivate friendships and contacts, his references are Cadorin, by Carlo Dalla Zorza, Eugenio Da Venezia, confronts and befriends Consadori, Saetti, Guidi, Varagnolo. He meets also Guttuso and Carra.
Luigi Gai along with fellow sculptor Charles Earl, brings together a group of artists and writers who reside in the area of the district of Piave, including citing the pievigina soprano Toti dal Monte, writer Emilia Salvioni, the sculptress Sammartini, all fervent artists . In Treviso, in 1954 he knows Bruna Menegatti (1920 1999), a native of Vicenza, who moved to Treviso to attend a course for the Telephone Company Telve. Luigi married less than a year later, in July 1955 in Vicenza. Bruna, sixteen years younger than him, the woman who is the faithful companion of his life. He had two sons, Andrea and Mariagrazia.
Gay marriage means the beginning of a new life, he moved to Trent and shortly thereafter, along an "artistic journey" that will lead to a change in his painting, he abandoned the design in pencil and charcoal use only, oil paint him down with the spatula and your fingers so that the material becomes oil paint, the canvas of massive doses of color deepens. He arises a new aspect of man and the painter much to bring to sign thereafter his works under the name Gay (from the French gay man, sympathetic, gallant). The portraits, now, are decisive and clear signs, the effect of light and shade is highlighted, and the paintings of oil colors are a feast of colors, red, yellow, blue sea, the Gay pink and green of the trees are a constant presence in the works of Luigi Gay.
And 'just in his mid 60's and 70's that Gay weaves the relationship "love" with the Valley Mocheni (TN), with the traditions of that people which reminded him of his childhood, in particular fascinated him the rural culture of their work, drenched faces of fatigue, the views of the Alpine houses, wooden huts, barns, cows, fires lit, the tradition of alpine agriculture.
Experiences abroad, what most struck the Gay, were the landscapes of the Seine in Paris and Montmartre and the Dutch flower fields (color tulips).
In 1976, the Workmen's Institute, published a calendar of carbon Mocheni the Valley (TN) and in 1980 the proloco Moriago published a charcoal with glimpses of Moriago.
Gay Luigi died in Treviso on July 1, 1980 at the age of seventy years.
The Retrospectives: 1981 Moriago della Battaglia in collaboration with the Pro Loco the first retrospective, Moriago della Battaglia 1991 in collaboration with the Proloco second retrospective, Moriago della Battaglia 2010 of the town hall the third retrospective in memory of thirty years, 2010 Tenno (TN) house of artists retrospective aspects of the mountain, 2010 Cembra (TN), in memory of the painter Louis Gay (citizenship of 1975), 2011 Trento (TN) retrospective in collaboration with the Municipality of Trent, 2012 Borgo Valsugana (TN) a retrospective tribute to Luigi Gay.
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