Riflessi A Tiburon

This work titled 'Riflessi A Tiburon' by Marco Sassone, an American-Italian painter, is an oil on linen measured at 16 x 20 inches. It is an abstract expressionist piece of a coastal scene. The water takes up close to half of the lower portion of the composition, reflecting the seaside village that borders the water, as well as the sailboats and docks seen in the left hand side of the composition. The village, made up of about 15 non-representational structures, is positioned in the center of the composition, on a hill that spans to both the left and right edges of the work. This acts as the horizon line which is enough below the top of the work to where the sky holds about a third of the composition. The sky is painted with many different shades of blue, while also incorporating hints of white, purple, green and orange. Sassone uses very broad and squiggly brush strokes for the sky, adding even more movement to the work, accompanying the expressionistic style he exhibits. The depiction of the water contributes even more so to the movement of the piece, as the ripples in the water are very defined, resulting in the refections on the water to be somewhat intangible. The water holds a lot of the same colors used in the village, as the hill and homes are reflected in the water, but the waters true blue colors are seen in just a small area at the bottom of the composition, where there are no perceived reflections. Sassone uses a pattern of darker blues and lighter blues to represent the calm ripples of water and the perceived reflected sunlight, whereas, in the area of water that reflects the village, he uses a palette of brown, orange, white, dark green and some blue. Three tall, thin poles emerge into the sky from what appears to be the sailboats on the left side of the work, helping to identify the boats and docks that are depicted. The green hill that the village is positioned upon, is also very expressionistic in which the the houses and land are painted with broad, thick, and messy brush strokes. This landscape perfectly embodies the stylistic qualities of post impressionist and expressionist art, alluding to the fleeting nature of our constantly moving world.

Marco Sassone was born in a Tuscan village in 1942 and moved to Florence with his family at age 12. Florence is where his interest in art began to flourish, especially when he met painters Ugo Maturo and Ottone Rosai. He then studied architectural drafting for several years at Istituto Galileo Galilei. At age 21, Sassone worked under the instruction of painter Silvio Loffredo who taught at the Accademia in Florence and his first works were exhibited at Lo Sprone Cultural Center in Florence. A few years later he moved to California because of a flood that hit his city and he was then able to showcase his work in places like Dalzell-Hatfield Galleries in Los Angeles and the Festival of the Arts in Laguna Beach. Throughout his late twenties and thirties, his work was exhibited in many places around the United States and abroad, where he continued to develop and establish himself as a well-known and successful artist. Later in life, 2005 to be exact, Sassone moved his studio to Toronto, Canada and created a space for himself there, continuing his work and artistic pursuits. Some of the more recent exhibitions he has participated in include: David Findlay Jr. Fine Art, New York (2010): Shrine of Saint Francis, San Francisco (2010): Santuario at Palazzo dell’Informazione, Rome (2010); Architecture and Nature at Price Tower Art Center, Oklahoma (2012); Oil and Water at San Angelo Museum, Texas (2014); Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa, California (2016); His Boots and Other Works at Bata Museum, Toronto (2016); and Viaticus at Berenson Fine Art, Toronto (2017).