ABOUT RAPHAEL SASSI, 1976-2019

Biography

Raphael John Sassi was born in Pennsylvania on October 29, 1976, and raised in Maryland. He began his art studies in his early teens, and he eventually received a Maryand Artist’s Distinguished Scholar Finalist Award in 1995. Subsequently, he enrolled at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, including a semester studying abroad in Italy at Syracuse University in Florence. He graduated MICA in 1999.

He was, in the words of Professor James Hennessey, “The most accomplished draughtsman that I encountered in my 37 years of teaching at the Maryland Institute.” After some travel, he moved to New York City where he attended graduate school on scholarship at the New York Academy of Art in Tribeca. After receiving his MFA cum laude in 2004, he was awarded the Walter Erlebacher Award for the study of artistic anatomy. He was also awarded one of the three distinguished NYAA year-long post-graduate residencies—the Academy’s highest honor and one of the fellowship positions for the year 2005.

Raphael exhibited numerous times in New York City, including two group shows in the Chelsea district and at the National Arts Club, where he was awarded the National Portrait Society Award for the renowned graphite work on paper, “Allen,” now in a private collection. He also exhibited at the Salmagundi Club, the New York Academy of Art, four drawing exhibitions at the Medialia Gallery, and a solo exhibit in Soho. Further, he exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art with the Maryland Artist’s Equity Foundation.

He was published in the Denver Westworld, Elle magazine, Fine Art Connoisseur, The New York Times, and Page Six of the New York Post. Raphael was interviewed for the Spectrum News NY1 Arts Report and for the New York Times Style section video short, and more recently in the new book dedicated to contemporary figuration, The Figure, published by Rizzoli, as well as the Huffington Arts blog.

Shortly after receiving a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship Grant in the Drawing/ Bookmaking category in 2007, he taught anatomical drawing at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and the School for Visual Arts in Manhattan in their undergraduate programs. In 2009, he was awarded the Acadia Foundation and the Richard Estes Artist Residency Grant. His work is part of numerous private collections, including Eric Fischl.

Raphael Sassi died on April 5, 2019, in Henderson Colorado. His life was taken by an unprovoked and senseless act of gun violence.

The complexity and beauty of Raphael’s life are illuminated by the following words from his aunt, Diane Rynd:

“In a senseless, violent act, the light went out on April 5, 2019. The light that connected son/brother/nephew/artist/man/child to a tumultuous, challenging world. The light that allowed him to see the beauty in so many things. The light that let that extend that vision from his brain through his fingers to share exquisite beauty. That same light held him captive, struggling to sustain his equilibrium in a world that refuses to support that exquisite beauty. We are all so much more blind now that his light is gone.”

“WHY I DRAW”

“Drawing is one of the oldest forms of communication after spoken language. It is essential to the development of the art student’s work and the core curriculum of the art university. Drawing the human figure has shed its anachronistic stigma as it is revealed to be an integral aspect in the work of New York’s prominent artists.

I believe very deeply that through diligent practice drawing from life reveals the harmony between perceptual abstraction and the materialization of the artist’s vision, effectively nurturing the cognitive ability of the creative mind regardless of the eventual choice of discipline. Drawing has always been the core of how I define myself and my work.

The interdisciplinary applications of a strong foundation in drawing are invaluable and innumerable. From painting, printmaking, sculpture to graphic design and the world of digital media, drawing has not nor will it diminish as the underlying thread at the inception of image making. As computers enable creation while reducing artist’s decisions and hand to mere information, the artist is still dependent on the skill acquired by that hand. Through all forms of communication and image making, drawing remains essential.

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— Raphael Sassi