Museo Sassu

The historic Palazzo Ferri—once an elegant nobleman's mansion and a beautiful piece of late 19th-century city architecture—is now home to a museum path completely dedicated to the great master Aligi Sassu (1912–2000). Inside, you will find 210 works that take you on a long journey through his life, from 1927 all the way to the 1990s. This amazing collection was gifted to the town of Atessa in the summer of 2010 by Alfredo Paglione. Born in nearby Tornareccio, Paglione was the face behind the famous Galleria Trentadue, a hotspot where Milan’s top artists and thinkers used to hang out back in the day. The deep friendship between Paglione and Sassu—who actually married two sisters, Teresita and Helenita Olivares—inspired a mix of life and art that still sparks the imagination of visitors today, young and old alike.

As you walk through Palazzo Ferri, you will really get a feel for Sassu’s brilliant and independent mind. He had a unique way of absorbing the cultural trends of his time and spinning them into something completely fresh. You will see this clearly through the wide variety of themes he tackled and his fearless experiments with different painting styles and techniques.

Up on the first floor, you will find around 90 pieces, including drawings, watercolors, pastels, and temperas. Look out for the first two works on display, Il ritorno (The Return) and Ultradecorazione (Ultradecoration). Sassu painted these temperas in 1927 when he was just 15 years old, showing an incredibly mature eye for composition and color while playing with Futurism. In the watercolor Il Ciclista (The Cyclist), the artist uses a bike ride as a metaphor for life itself. Finally, in his explosive Uomini Rossi (Red Men) series, he breaks all the rules with color. He paints weightless, floating figures using a palette of pink shades, mixed with striking streaks of ochre, yellow, and blue.

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