Pozzallo, 9 July 1914 - Rome 19 September 1998

Son of Angela Spadaro and Giorgio Assenza, fifth of eight brothers including Enzo, sculptor, Valente belonged to a Modican family always linked to the Pozzalle summer holidays: from an early age he began to paint guided by his father, a photographer, decorator, painter and sculptor, by his brother Beppe and, above all, by Canon Orazio Spadaro, his maternal uncle, a priest-painter with a studio in upper Modica, well known for the countless artistic testimonies left in Sicily and elsewhere.

For the very young Valente, every day was a practice, progress and reaching new goals starting from the observation of nature and painting everything he found interesting. His creativity was precocious: already as a child he modeled nativity scene characters in clay, made sketches of animals, portraits of family members and one day he modeled a dead donkey in sand on the Pietre Nere beach with such realism that people held their noses passing by.

In the summer of 1931, finding himself with his family on holiday in Pozzallo, the very young Valente took bathers and fishermen, children and women with black dresses and handkerchiefs as models, immortalizing them in scenes full of freshness, such as "Children with flute", "Pidocchi", "Il Muto" and other canvases. Some of these early works were donated by their author to the municipal library of Pozzallo in 1995, as a tribute to his hometown.

Precisely then, in an age so rich in internal drives, the desire to cross the strait to go in search of new horizons, which he needed like the air one breathes, became impelling in him. However, it was a difficult decision to make and one that all the family members, including his older brother Beppe, advised against. However, when at the age of eighteen he was commissioned two large altarpieces for the Church of San Diego in Canicattì (AG), in addition to the acclaim and recognition he received a fee that allowed him to take the big step. So together with his seventeen-year-old brother Enzo, a sculptor of great promise, in 1933 he left with enthusiasm and a thousand hopes for Rome, then a hotbed of artists and dispenser of glory. In the capital he followed nude courses at the Italian and French Academy and there he distinguished himself for the confidence and expressive strength of his line, for the powerful plasticity of his forms.

In 1934 he participated and won ex aequo with a lithograph on Enrico Toti the great national competition organized by the great Queen Elena of Savoy on "War and Victory" set up at the Quirinale.

An important "Crucifixion", a charcoal drawing executed when he was still in Syracuse, and other nude studies made at the Academy together with the works of his brother Enzo marked their future, leaving, by their dramatic expressiveness, Miss Kempy (American millionairess, patron of the arts and well-known in Roman artistic circles) literally amazed who, by speaking about it to Lady Egerton, English nobleman and lady-in-waiting to Queen Helena, gave rise to the Roman fortunes of the two brothers.

The latter, in fact, struck by the talent of the two young people, allowed them to set up a personal exhibition in her palace, inaugurated by Queen Elena and visited by the Roman nobility. The Queen herself purchased all their works for her private collection, assigning them a bright, fully equipped "art studio" in the center of Rome and a two-year "scholarship" to attend the Academy of Fine Arts.

This period full of fruitful study and work was abruptly interrupted by the call to arms which forced him at the age of twenty-one to leave for Ethiopia in the summer of 1935. Two tiring years followed in which his dreams as a young artist were shattered in the face of a harsh reality of suffering, devastation and death. He brought with him colors and brushes and between one march and another he managed to paint works and portraits of great intensity here too, on fortuitous rags and rags of canvas. Among the various companions he saw die, art made him survive, partially managing to alleviate the pain and discouragement. From that period there remain some oil works (self-portraits, portraits of fellow soldiers, paintings with scenes of real life in Ethiopia) and a precious diary with many pen sketches and drawings. These are pages in which he describes with a disenchanted gaze the cruelties of war, the habits and customs of the indigenous population with extremely interesting historical references, but at the same time he expresses all the richness of his inner world made up of memories, hopes and sharing in the fate of friends, companions and local people he met.

Having returned from the war in 1937, exhausted and discouraged by the terrible experience, he moved to Genoa where for twelve years he worked mainly in portraiture for the Genoese nobility and in particular for the Ambassador of San Salvador, De Canessa, creating large portraits of all the members of the family and a bronze bust of his son who died during the revolution.

During the dark years of the Second World War he worked as an advertising graphic designer for Ansaldo.

In 1949 he returned to Rome, where in the meantime his entire family had moved, to assist his ill mother and continue his production of highly expressive portraits (including those of the Marchesa de Curtis, Countess Gambaro, wife of Totò, the actresses Franca Valeri and Anna Maria Pierangeli, the Marchesa Bombrini, Prince Ferrari, the famous singer Maria Callas) and free works, landscapes and still lifes.

Friend of the director Anton Giulio Bragaglia, protected by the Countess Tatiana Tolstoi and the writer Margherita Sarfatti, Valente counted among his friends and acquaintances the musician Gianluca Tocchi, the poet Gino Severini, many art critics, such as Michele Biancale, and the philosopher Adriano Tilgher. His good relationships with the poet Trilussa, with the actress Emma Grammatica and with Prince Antonio De Curtis, aka Totò, were also known.

The exhibitions thus became a constant presence, accompanied by always gratifying successes, various prizes and the favor of the public. However, the demand for works of a sacred nature continued at an increasing rate: evidence of his painting can be found in many churches on the peninsula and, due to space problems, it is not possible to indicate them all.

Among the cities closest to us, Modica certainly had the lion's share: in the Sanctuary of the Madonna delle Grazie he frescoed the ceiling and walls ("Ester and Assueo", "Judith and Holofernes", "Jael and Sisera", "Angel" from 1965 - 66 and "The miracle of Santa Teresa del Bambin Gesù" and "The souls in purgatory", the latter copy of a painting from 1700, painted in 1973 - 74), in the Church of St. Peter we find the “Baptism of Christ” (1957), the “Martyrdom of St. Peter” and the “Miraculous Fishing”. For the Church of the Crescione Lupis Institute in Ragusa Valente painted the "SS. Trinità con Madonna e San Giovanni" (1959) and for the Pantheon of Syracuse the "S. Antonio" and "La Madonna della Pace" (1960 - 61). These last works were also exhibited at a very successful personal exhibition held in Syracuse at "La Fontanina" by Angelo Maltese, a famous photographer and friend of his.

In 1961 he married Erika Steinhagen, a German he met in Rome through a mutual painter friend, with whom he had two daughters.

In 1962 he worked for the poster of the classical representations of the Greek Theater of Syracuse and the following year he began teaching life drawing at the Art Institute of Cerreto Sannita (BN) and subsequently of Marino and Ciampino (RM).

A teacher respected by his colleagues and loved by all his students, he carries out this job with passion, allowing the children to have important artistic experiences. He always finds a way to dedicate time and generous advice to students who seek him out and some of them will follow him for years, taking him as an example as a teacher of life.

For the church of Santa Venera in Avola (SR) he painted "Baptism as a sacrament" (1968) where, from a more classical style that had characterized his works until now, he moved on to greater stylization and modernity.

In Pozzallo, he painted the great "Apotheosis of Saint John the Baptist", painted in 1969 in the church of the same name, a very large fresco, whose soft and restful colors almost naturally lead to meditation and prayer.

In the Sanctuary of Santa Maria di Portosalvo he created the decoration of the vault of the Apse and a copy of the seventeenth-century canvas "San Giorgio". In the church of Sant'Anna in Modica there is evidence of his last work from Modica, dated 1991 which he painted, already ill for the apse of the church with a composition measuring seven by five meters which contains the four salient moments of the life of Christ (Nativity, Last Supper, Crucifixion and Resurrection).

In 1992 he was awarded the Sicilia - il Paladino Prize in Syracuse.

His important restoration works carried out with rare expertise are in Ispica, Syracuse, Ragusa, Noto and Avola.

Over the years he also created valuable sculptures, busts of famous people and various subjects, however favoring religious themes as he had done with painting. Among the sculptures, there are four significant bronze bas-reliefs commissioned in 1985 for the tomb of the La Ruffa family in Polistena depicting the Nativity, the Baptism, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection.

In recent years, despite health problems, he continues to spend many hours in his studio and to paint smaller works including "Saint Michael and the Dragon", his last completed work.

He passed away after a long illness in Rome, on 19 September 1998, at the age of 84.

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

A special thanks to the daughters Angela and Eliana for their precious collaboration.