Collections
The Scassa Collection
Today, the Scassa Collection is safeguarded in the Certosa di Valmanera, located just outside the centre of Asti, in an imposing structure whose history began during the 12th century, initially governed by the Vallumbrosan Order of monks before passing to the Order of Carthusians, which documents show had happened at least by 1391. Now deconsecrated, the building was in fact confiscated by Napoleonic troops. In 1801, its religious functions and activities were finally suppressed before the site fell into a long period of abandonment.
Restoration only began in the middle of the 20th century. In the meantime, some of the structures had collapsed, with attempts being made to safeguard that which remained. It is here that since 1965, Arazzeria Scassa has been located, availing of the large halls to accommodate the imposing high-warp looms, necessary for the realisation of the tapestries.
Today, the Arazzi Scassa Collection is one of the most important in Europe, a true founding core of contemporary art. These are extraordinary tapestry works, to which refer the fascinating documents contained in the Scassa Archive and Library, safeguarding may texts devoted not only to the history of tapestry but to the history of 20th-century art more generally.
The Scassa Collection represents one of the greatest points of reference for the history of design. Preserved within are tapestries whose production ranges from the 1960s to the most important recent achievements, through a series of collaborations with leading artists and architects on the international scene.
Cruise Liners
In the 1960s, the Arazzeria Scassa had the privilege of giving substance to an extraordinary project – the creation of tapestries for Italian cruise liners, under the direction of Ugo Scassa. Masterpieces of immeasurable historical and artistic value, a selection of tapestries are now safeguarded in Rome in the National Gallery of Modern Art.
Starting out in 1960, Arazzeria Scassa created the tapestries to adorn the great Italian cruise liners that crossed the Atlantic for a decade, linking Italy with America. In dimensions of great impact and made by Arazzeria Scassa based on cartoons from the greatest masters of Italian Abstractionism, they adorned the imposing halls of the last transatlantic cruise liners made in Italy, bringing new life to an artistic craft that had been quite common in the 1600s and 1700s, once the exclusive prerogative of high society. These ships were actually tasked with transporting not only passengers but to diffuse between the two continents the most valuable and avant-garde productions of what we know today as Made in Italy. On board, it was possible to buy pieces from or get in contact with the companies producing the refined interiors, including Arazzeria Scassa.
Leonardo da Vinci Cruise Liner
In 1960, Arazzeria Scassa created sixteen large-scale tapestries, woven on cartoons from the most important contemporary Italian artists, all works destined to the First-class Dance Hall of the Leonardo da Vinci cruise liner. The artists involved were Corrado Cagli, Giuseppe Capogrossi, Antonio Corpora, Giulio Turcato, Pia Bernini and Giuseppe Santomaso. The maiden journey – from Genoa to New York – was scheduled for 30th June 1960. Arazzeria Scassa, then known as Italia Disegno, created sixteen fabrics in just six months. The last tapestry was delivered on the occasion of the ship’s inauguration, held two days before the actual departure, and taken aboard directly by Ugo Scassa and eleven weavers. The Leonardo da Vinci tapestries had the extraordinary merit of making the Asti manufacture known internationally.
Michelangelo Cruise Liner
For the Michelangelo, twelve high-warp tapestries were woven by Arazzeria Scassa, between 1964 and 1965, including an imposing tapestry that extends six metres in length, woven on a cartoon by Giuseppe Capogrossi, plus five large tapestries made on cartoons from the Studio Zoncada, reaching seven metres long. To conclude, six tapestries with abstract themes on cartoons by Roberto Aloi were hung in the Second-class Party Hall. Two of these large woven fabrics have forms aligned with the artistic experience of the Informal.
Raffaello Cruise Liner
On the walls of the Gran Bar Atlantic of the Raphael cruise liner, twenty-one tapestries created by the Arazzeria Scassa were displayed. The idea was to create a harmonious collection of art, exposing tapestries uniform in size, all with an abstract theme and with the same clear background shade. The creations were developed on cartoons by Carla Accardi, Roberto Ercolini, Achille Perilli, Gastone Novelli, Mimmo Rotella, Sandro Trotti, Federico Spoltore, Emilio Vedova, Giulio Turcato and others. During the last voyage, which took place in the spring of 1975, a tapestry made on a cartoon by Vedova disappeared, probably carried off the ship hidden inside a suitcase. All trace of this tapestry has been completely lost.
Institutions
Over time, Arazzeria Scassa has produced a series of valuable works that currently belong to various national and international institutions.
Credit institutions
On numerous occasions, Arazzeria Scassa has been the protagonist of a virtuous union between culture and banks, favouring the development of important art collections, as a stimulus for and testimony of the significance that art has and must have in an extraordinary nation such as Italy.
Numerous banks possess works woven by Arazzeria Scassa, including Apollo and Daphne by Cagli, now owned by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Asti and hailing from the Angelo Rizzoli Collection in Milan, a series of tapestries on cartons by Marcello Avenali woven for the Banco di Santo Spirito in Rome (now the Banca di Roma) along with three tapestries, two based on sketches by Luigi Spazzapan and one by Felice Casorati, made for the Salone del Trecento of the San Paolo Banking Institute in Turin. Based on the work of Felice Casorati, a tapestry was created for the Banca Cassa di Risparmio in Asti.
Private Collections
The motivation underlying the private purchase of one or more tapestries occasionally stems from the idea of investing, not being separate from the artistic choice and the idea of patronage.
Over time, a significant number of collectors have purchased tapestries and carpets made by the Asti tapestry atelier, being art enthusiasts and connoisseurs with whom the new generation of tapestries has also maintained and maintains a close relationship, sometimes as part of a collaboration in anticipation of exhibitions and cultural events.
