Ciusa, Biasi and Figari

There are three episodes that artistic literature has indicated, at different times, as the starting point of the history of twentieth-century art in Sardinia. The first is the Exhibition held in Sassari in 1896, in which numerous Sardinian and mainland artists participated and which represents the first official meeting of its kind.

Another moment relates to the presence in Sardinia of two Spanish painters, Eduardo Chicharro Agüera and Antonio Ortiz Echagüe, respectively in 1901 and 1906-1909, representatives of the pictorial current of Iberian Costumbrismo, whose works awakened the sensitivity of Sardinian painters to the values (not least that of identity) of their traditions.

Finally, in 1907, the great success achieved at the Venice Biennale by the Nuoro sculptor Francesco Ciusa, who with the work “The Mother of the Killed”, whose meaning was not fully understood, brought the attention of critics of the peninsula to the themes of Sardinian culture.

In reality, each of these episodes, while not representing in itself the beginning of the new course of Sardinian art, has constituted an important part of this process.

The Sassari exhibition of 1896 marked the realization, in the intellectual class, of the lack of Sardinian art and of the urgent need for its emergence; the Spanish stay accompanied the evolution of the situation; Ciusa's affirmation represents the first recognition at the national level of the ferment that is now taking place.

A decisive turning point compared to nineteenth-century experiences can therefore be identified between 1904 and 1905, years in which a strong bond emerged for the first time between artists and island intellectuals and witnessed the emergence of three personalities who were decisive for the formation of the Sardinian figurative movement: Ciusa, in fact, and with him the painters Giuseppe Biasi and Filippo Figari.

MONOGRAPHS
G. Altea, Francesco Ciusa. Nuoro, Ilisso, 2004 (The Masters of Sardinian Art; 3);
G. Altea, Giuseppe Biasi. Nuoro, Ilisso, 2004 (The Masters of Sardinian Art; 1);
G. Murtas, Filippo Figari. Nuoro, Ilisso, 2004 (The Masters of Sardinian Art

; 2).