Aligi Sassu, 88, Italian artist

[T.E. Goodell]

MADRID, Spain (AP) - Italian painter, sculptor and engraver Aligi Sassu, a
pioneer of Italian contemporary art, died in his home on the Spanish
Mediterranean island of Mallorca. He was 88.

Sassu died Monday on his birthday, after suffering from a lengthy illness, said
Ruben Avida, a regional government spokesman. The cause of death was not
immediately known.

Sassu, who was most famous for his futurist painting and work with ceramics,
sculpture and engraving, started in the world of art as a teen-ager, exhibiting
his work at a Milan gallery in 1927.

He was soon widely accepted in the futurist movement, which emphasized the
dynamism, speed and power of the machine. He also wrote a movement manifesto
called ``Dynamism and Muscular Strength.''

Sassu went to Paris in the 1930s where he studied Impressionist masters,
abandoning futurism and moving towards post-impressionism.

He and his wife, Colombian singer Helenita Olivares, lived for 40 years in the
Spanish village of Pollenza, 36 miles south of Palma de Mallorca. They had no
children.

Among Sassu's most famous paintings are the 1931 ``Uomini Rossi'' or ``Red
Men'' and the 1944 ``Martiri di Piazzale Loreto'' or ``Martyrs on Piazzale
Loreto.''

His remains were to be cremated on Wednesday. He is survived by his wife.

AP-NY-07-18-00 0902EDT