Marco SassoneFor a detailed view and pricing information, click on a title. About Marco Sassone: "Marco Sassone is a Florentine by birth, ancestry and temperament. But his training and experience have combined to give him a view of the world that is truly international - spiritually as well as geographically. He has remained faithful to his innate genius and deeply-held convictions as an artist." - Charles Speroni, Dean, College of Fine Arts, UCLA Marco Sassone was born in Campi Bisenzio, a Tuscan village, in 1942. His family moved to Florence in 1954, and there he met painters Ottone Rosai and Ugo Maturo, who encouraged him to follow his interest in art. Sassone enrolled at the Istituto Galileo Galilei, where he studied architectural drafting for several years; during this period, he supported himself by selling watercolor sketches of Florence to tourists, many of whom were Americans, which increased his fluency in English. Later, Sassone studied with painter Silvio Loffredo, professor of art at the Accademia in Florence, and himself a pupil of the Austrian master Oskar Kokoschka. Sassone was encouraged by Loffredo to develop his own style and vision; for inspiration, he studied the works of the 19th century Italian impressionists, the Macchiaioli - Giovanni Fattori, Vito D’Ancona and Silvestro Lega. He began exhibiting his first works at this time. At the age of 25, he was selected to exhibit at Lo Sprone Cultural Center in Florence. In November 1967, soon after a flood had devastated his city, Sassone traveled to the United States and settled in California; he later moved to Laguna Beach, a small seaside community, Mediterranean in geography and climate, with its own commitment to the arts.  Throughout the '70s, Sassone participated in a variety of exhibitions in the U.S. and abroad, including the annual Festival of the Arts in Laguna Beach. In 1982, he was knighted into the "Order to the Merit of the Italian Republic" by Italy's President, Sandro Pertini, and received a gold medal award from the Italian Academy of Arts, Literature and Science. In the early '80s, Sassone moved his studio to San Francisco. In March 1988, the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery hosted the American preview for his one-person exhibition to be held at the Bernheim-Jeune Gallery in Paris that April.Art historian Donelson Hoopes published "Sassone", a monograph, in concurrence with the artist’s exhibition at the Laguna Art Museum (November - December 1979). With prescience, Hoopes had observed: "Sassone’s art has evolved from within, and such an organic, psychological and spiritual process may take his work along new and unforeseen paths." By the late '80s, Sassone had become increasingly concerned with social themes. He started working with the Inter Aid organization, donating paintings to raise money for the group’s work with children in crisis. He also donated works to a Los Angeles-based non-profit group called Another Planet, supporting its work with the homeless. He began extensive - and personal - research on the homeless and painted a series of large canvasses and charcoal drawings portraying the life he observed on the streets. A number of these works have been exhibited at the Chicago International Art Exposition, the Basel Art Fair in Switzerland, and the Jan Baum Gallery in Los Angeles, as well as in the exhibition "Body Politic" at the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery and in "Issue of Choice" at the Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibition (LACE). In March of 1994, his exhibition "Home on the Streets" opened at the Museo ItaloAmericano in San Francisco, later traveling to Los Angeles and Florence, Italy. Kenneth Baker, art critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, wrote about Sassone's work: "There is true technical brilliance here. ... In the drawings, his technique seems to discover fresh descriptive possibilities each time out." In 1997, Marco Sassone received a commission to create a 200-square-foot mural in downtown San Francisco. The Palazzo Ducale Museum in Massa-Carrara, Italy presented his retrospective exhibition in March-April 2002, with the publication of a catalogue written by Massimo Bertozzi. The exhibition was reviewed by La Nazione, Florence and La Repubblica, Rome. Sassone is currently working in Toronto and Florence on his intensely envisioned landscapes and cityscapes, known for a heightened sense of color and his powerfully expressive gestural style.    |
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