Pozzallo, 8 October 1915 - Rome 5 November 1981

Enzo belonged to a family where art was at home: his father was in fact a photographer, decorator, painter, sculptor and papier-mâché, the canon Orazio Spadaro, his maternal uncle was an established painter, his older brothers Beppe and Valente were painters and his uncle Antonino, his father's brother, was a photographer and decorator.

Like many kids from Pozzallo, during the summer holidays Enzo enjoyed kneading Pietre Nere clay, showing an inclination for sculpture ever since. In 1927, his father's move to Syracuse for work offered Enzo and his brothers Beppe and Valente an extraordinary opportunity for cultural enrichment by studying the works of classical antiquity exhibited in the local Archaeological Museum, one of the most important in Europe.

In 1933 he decided, together with his brother Valente, to leave Sicily to go to Rome, a city certainly more suitable for realizing the hopes of completely unknown artists.

Among the many foreseeable difficulties, including economic ones, they used a large abandoned chicken coop, made available by friends, as a home-studio, in which to live and work, and began to frequent the world of artists in Via Margotta, in the hope that, in contact with many authoritative people, they would one day be blessed with good fortune. In 1933 they began to give greater visibility to their creations, inviting artists and critics to their studio and, finally, luck materialized one day in Miss Kempy, a rich and extroverted American who, when visiting their large studio, was favorably struck by a large charcoal "Crucifix", drawn with four hands on the back wall.

The gentlewoman sensed their talent and, eager to help them, spoke about it to Lady Ergeton, an English noble friend of hers and lady-in-waiting to Queen Helena. The English lady, after having personally ascertained what had been reported to her, had an exclusive exhibition set up even in her palace, inaugurated personally by the Queen who arrived in the company of personalities close to the court circles, including Pietro Canonica, one of the greatest sculptors of the time.

For such young artists it was an extraordinary event, also because all the works on display were sold and many of which were even purchased by Vittorio Emanuele III, who wanted to add them to his private collection: the Sovereigns awarded the two brothers, among other things, a three-year scholarship and, in the Via Flaminia, a large, fully equipped sculpture and painting studio.

Enzo successfully attended the Academy of Fine Arts and the French Academy and dedicated himself to preparing the exhibition material for the exhibitions in which he would soon participate: such as the "Homage to Heroes" competition, organized in 1935 by the Quirinale, in which he won the prize for Sculpture, or the solo exhibition at Palazzo Torlonia. At just 20 years old, again in 1935, he was the youngest exhibitor at the Venice International Art Biennale, presenting the "Signorina Marta", a wooden work that was once again purchased by the King. He participated in the III Quadrennial Art Exhibition in Rome in 1938 and also won, in 1939, the competition for monumental sculpture works to be placed at the Termini Station in Rome.

The awards followed one another without stopping, together with the many exhibitions to which he was now invited: the one organized in 1940 by the Ministry of Corporations was very important, which earned him the first prize for "The Meditation", a stone work with particular charm.

In 1946 he won the international competition for a monumental marble statue of San Bartolomeo, created for the Cathedral of Messina, which was followed, in 1948, by that of Santa Lucia in gilded wood, for the Church of the same name located in the Italian neighborhood of Buenos Aires in Argentina.

He frequented fellow countrymen from the world of culture, such as Vitaliano Brancati, Salvatore Quasimodo and Giorgio La Pira and protagonists of twentieth-century sculpture, such as Renato Guttuso, Francesco Messina and Emilio Greco.

Meanwhile in Rome, in 1950, at the Exhibition of Reconstruction, two sculptures by Enzo Assenza were purchased by the Gallery of Modern Art in Florence and the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm; in 1951 with "Il Coro" he won first prize at the International Exhibition of Sacred Art while, in 1954, the sculpture "Il Bue", exhibited at Palazzo Marignoli, was purchased by the Art Museum of Rome, earning yet another first prize.

These are just some of the many awards obtained both in Italy and abroad, which are difficult to list here due to space constraints.

At the competition announced in 1961 by the International Institute of Liturgical Art, Enzo presented a sketch depicting the Apocalypse, to be created in metallized ceramic for the apse of the Cathedral of Saint Joseph in Hartford, the capital of Connecticut, in the USA: a monumental work that required three years of work and which, due to its 320 m2 in size, is still defined today as the largest ceramic bas-relief in the world.

In that period he continued to reap first prizes: in the National Competition for the "Monument of Justice" in the Piazza dei Tribunali in Bari, in 1964 in the Sculpture Competition for the Soldier's Exhibition, with a large wooden statue depicting "The Humanity of the Soldier", owned by the Armed Forces and exhibited in Palazzo Barberini.

The satisfactions continued in 1969, with the winning of the International Competition for the "Monument for the independence of the Congo", in 1970 with the statue of Saint Catherine of Siena in metallized terracotta (porous clay mixture which after cooking becomes reddish due to the iron compounds mixed in it), placed in the Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome, with "San Carlo Borromeo" and "San Luigi Gonzaga" placed in the Church of San Giovanni Bosco also in Rome.

Without neglecting another Saint Catherine of Siena, in metallic ceramic, donated to the Municipal Library of Pozzallo and the Monument to Saint John the Baptist, in bronze, which dominates the Raganzino seafront of her hometown.

Enzo Assenza's production is almost a river in flood, with often monumental works, such as the "Beata Maura Degollado de Maciel" in Mexico Cotija, the "polychrome terracotta" for the Church of San Paolo della Croce in Atlanta, Georgia (USA), the altar of the "Sicilian Saints" - Lucia, Agata and Rosalia - in the Church of Gethsemane in Paestum, and finally the "Via Crucis", "San Francesco" and Rita”, all in ceramic, for the Church of Santa Rita in Syracuse.

It is impossible, in such a short space, to list all the works of Enzo Assenza, scattered throughout Italy and throughout the world: his was certainly the prodigious creativity of an extraordinary artist, who was even awarded the "Golden Silenus", a prize awarded annually to Sicilians who, anywhere in the world, have distinguished themselves in the Arts, Literature, Sciences and more: a prestigious recognition which honors Pozzallo, considering that illustrious people, Nobel Prize winners for Literature, like Luigi Pirandello and Salvatore Quasimodo.

Death reached him on November 5, 1981, in Rome, at just 66 years old, suffering from a heart attack in his study.

Source:Luigi Rogasi, Pozzallesi of the 20th century, one hundred names not to be forgotten.