Thiesi, Aligi Sassu Permanent Collection

“The museum is currently closed for renovation and installation. It is currently not possible to indicate a probable reopening date.”

The museum is dedicated to Aligi Sassu, one of the great protagonists of 20th century Italian art (Milan 1912 - Pollença 2000). Born to Father Thiesino, he spent part of his childhood in Thiesi, drawing from those places impressions and suggestions that would influence his art.
The exhibition houses 120 works created between 1929 and 1995 with the techniques of etching, aquatint, drypoint and lithography.
Sassu's graphic production is parallel to the pictorial one and is nourished by the same themes: social reality and myth, the sacred and the profane, even in the provocative terms of the famous “Maison Tellier”. The artist's poignant expressive directness can be appreciated in the 35 works of the “Aligi Sassus folder. Graphic work of 1963” (introduction by Salvatore Quasimodo, critical essay by Giorgio Maschera), where works such as the “Crucifixions” of 1930 and 1942 coexist with the various “Cyclists”, “Musicians” and “Dice Players” of 1931, with “The Ruffiana” and “The Models” of 1939, and with other works that denote Sassu's deep connection with literature: “Orlando”, from 1938, “Scenic” Threshold of one of those exits...”, from 1943, inspired by famous page of the Betrothed.
Sassu was fascinated by the infinite dynamism and chromatic richness of the Ariostesco story, and returned to it in 1974, creating 15 color engravings collected in the folder “Fantasie d'Amor e di Guerra dell'Orlando Furioso”. But the artist's relationship with literature also shines through the 20 lithographs, etchings and aquetints of the famous folder “The Horses in Love”, published in 1973 by the Galleria Trentadue by Alfredo Paglione (Milan), accompanied by the poems of his poet friend Raffaele Carrieri.
The sacred theme characterizes the etching and the 6 lithographs that illustrate the Apocalypse, where the markedly expressionist accent is supported by the mysterious drama of the Book, but it is also in line with the search for 'sensuality' in the painting that animates European art of the early Eighties.
The horse, caught in its strength and arrogant vitality, is the protagonist of other collections: the 10 lithographs: “The Emperor's Horses”, from 1989, inspired by a series of Japanese votive tablets; the folder “In the Clouds My Horses”, with the etchings “Ettore and Achilles III and “Achilles and Xanto”; the folder of nine aquatint and drypoint color engravings, “The Myth of the Mediterranean”, from 1989-90 (introduction by Werner Spies), including “The Big Red Horse” “Poseidon's Horses.”
Five large “Homage to Sardinia” lithographs, with the verses of the Sardinian poet Sebastiano Satta, restore the myth of an archaic and majestic island.
The exhibition is completed by 17 loose, large format sheets from the Eighties: from 'Green Horses' (1987) to 'Ettore and Achilles' (1987), from 'The Two Only I' (1987) to 'Andromeda' (1989).

Why it is important to visit it
The museum gives the visitor the opportunity to meet a very talented artist, one of the greatest of the twentieth century. His works, rich in color, where myth and reality are intertwined, visionary imagination and the power of nature, arouse deep emotions.