CONSTRUCTIVE COLOR | |||||
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The most important pictures of the
second half of the 1930s are painted under the suggestion of Sassus French
experience, which brought about a significant
change in his pictorial idiom. He moved away from a lyrical, evocative tone toward a more
studied structure, thanks to a solidification and a more solidly constructive use of
color. His preference in these years was for a horizontal format, probably influenced by a greater interest in the events of history and a desire to present them in narrative terms. This evolution can be perceived in all the significant canvases of this period, whether historical and mythological in nature, like the battles, horses, nymphs, starting with the Cavalcata of 1935, or realistic, starting with The Big Café. I quadri più importanti dei secondi anni 30 sono eseguiti sotto le suggestioni dellFrench experience, che comporta un cambiamento significativo nel suo linguaggio pittorico: Sassu passa infatti da unintonazione lirico-evocativa a una rappresentazione dimpianto più ragionato, grazie a una solidificazione del colore e a un suo uso più saldamente costruttivo. E' di questi anni la preferenza per il formato orizzontale, probabilmente influenzata da un maggiore interesse per le vicende della storia e dalla volontà di rappresentarle in termini di svolgimento narrativo. Tale evoluzione è riscontrabile in tutte le tele significative del periodo, sia di carattere storicomitologico, come le battles, i horses, le ninfe, a partire dalla Cavalcata del 1935, sia di carattere realista, a partire da The Big Café. |
BATTLES AND MYTHOLOGY | |||||
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Indicative of the importance
attributed by the artist to works of this type is his choice of a battle scene for his
entry in the important anthological exhibition of Italian artists organized by the
Galleria della Cometa in 1937 in New York. Further examples of this aspect of his painting are works like Battle between Horsemen (1936-39), the new version of Argonauts constructed along the rhythm of a classical frieze, almost in the manner of Poussin (1938), The Wrath of Achilles (1938), Death of Patroclus, The Death of Caesar, and Solitude (1939). |