Aligi Sassu
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Aligi Sassu (July 17, 1912 - July 17, 2000) was an Italian painter and sculptor.
[edit] Biography
Aligi Sassu was born in Milan, Lombardy, into a Sardinian-origin family. His father Antonio was one of the founders of the Italian Socialist Party (Partito Socialista Italiano) at Sassari in 1894, and had moved to Milan in 1896, where he had married Lina Pedretti in 1911. At the beginning of 1920, the Sassu family moved back to Sardinia to Thiesi, where Antonio opened a shop. After three years, the family returned to Milan, where Aligi got interested into arts. Together with friend and Futurist designer Bruno Munari, he decided to present himself to the Futurism leader Filippo Tommaso Marinetti.
In 1928 he established, along with Bruno Munari, the Manifesto della Pittura (Painting Manifesto), taking as basic assumption the display of anti-naturalistic forms. He deeply studied Diego Velazquez and the plastic nude. Of this period is L'Ultima cena, a painting that sums up Sassu's visual poetic.
In 1930 in Milan, he met Giacomo Manzù, Giandante X (also known as Dante Persico) and Giuseppe Gorgerino. In 1934, Sassu strated studying Delacroix and the history paintings of the Louvre in Paris. In this period he also painted what will be his "logo" in the future, the horse, omnipresent in his future production.
In 1935, he established the Gruppo Rosso with, among others, Nino Franchina and Vittorio Della Porta. In 1936, he finished one of his most known paintings Il Caffè, as well as the Fucilazione nelle Asturie, painted in favour of the Spanish resistance.
After the Spanish Civil War, he started studying Vincent Van Gogh and moved back to Sardinia for some time. During this period, several paintings were dedicated to the Sardinian rural life. He also studied mural Paintinmg.
In 1963, he moved to the Balearic Islands, to Cala San Vicente then to Mallorca, to the village of Pollensa, Palma de Mallorca, Spain. In 1967, the cycle Tauromachie was presented by the Spanish poet Rafael Alberti. Red became Sassu's favourite color. In 1976, he worked for the frescos of Sant'Andrea in Pescara.
His last exhibition was held in Aosta in 1998. He died on his birthday, in 2000, at Pollensa. A considerable number of his masterpieces can be found in Lugano, Switzerland, at the Helenita Olivares and Aligi Sassu Foundation.
