Enrico Baj
b. 1924, Milan
d. 2003, Vergiate
Personaggio (Character)
1964
Mixed media
60 x 50 cm (23 5/8 x 19 3/4 in.)
Provenance
Private collection, Milan,
Giò Marconi, Milan.
Description
Enrico Baj was born in Milan in 1924 where he took courses at the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera while studying for a law degree. During this time he began to grow his network of relationships with Italian and foreign poets and writers that he maintained throughout his life.
A participant and observer of the Italian avant-garde of the 1950s, he founded the Arte Nucleare movement with Sergio Dangelo in 1951, one of the most innovative artistic trends of the period. He was always intellectually open to establish contacts with European artists and intellectuals, and as an anarchist his work war unremittingly political.
The Dadaist movement strongly influenced his artistic output and among his different stylistic variations; his collages have become the most recognised. His works are characterized by found objects such as belts and medals, gave rise to the Generals series.
Baj manages through his work to be close to the social situation of his native country of Italy, as exemplified by the painting Funeral of the Anarchist Pinelli (1970) first shown in 1972. It refers to Carlo Carrà’s work The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli (1911) and was also inspired by Pablo Picasso’s Guernica fresco (1937). It is a critique of the contemporary world, to the indiscriminate use of technology, to the prevalence of substance over form, the reduction of art to fashion, the spectacle and the object of every consumer. As a young man, the artist joined the anarchist movement both politically and ideologically , and as a confirmation of this is work has always been disrespectful towards power in all of its forms.
Personaggio is a collage which encapsulates Baj’s fascination with nuclear war and features in the Generals series which constitute his most prominent body of work. The present work depicts an absurd character made from found objects of everyday life assembled in an exuberant manner. It recalls in a certain extent Marcel Duchamp’s collages; in 1962 Baj took part in the show The Art of Assemblage in New York in which he met the latter. The collage is also characteristic of Baj’s practice in its use of belts and medals to create the protagonist: a medal is placed on the figure’s neck to create a tie and the figure’s ears and hair are made with curtain belts.
The artwork described above is subject to changes in availability and price without prior notice.
Where applicable ARR will be added.
A participant and observer of the Italian avant-garde of the 1950s, he founded the Arte Nucleare movement with Sergio Dangelo in 1951, one of the most innovative artistic trends of the period. He was always intellectually open to establish contacts with European artists and intellectuals, and as an anarchist his work war unremittingly political.
The Dadaist movement strongly influenced his artistic output and among his different stylistic variations; his collages have become the most recognised. His works are characterized by found objects such as belts and medals, gave rise to the Generals series.
Baj manages through his work to be close to the social situation of his native country of Italy, as exemplified by the painting Funeral of the Anarchist Pinelli (1970) first shown in 1972. It refers to Carlo Carrà’s work The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli (1911) and was also inspired by Pablo Picasso’s Guernica fresco (1937). It is a critique of the contemporary world, to the indiscriminate use of technology, to the prevalence of substance over form, the reduction of art to fashion, the spectacle and the object of every consumer. As a young man, the artist joined the anarchist movement both politically and ideologically , and as a confirmation of this is work has always been disrespectful towards power in all of its forms.
Personaggio is a collage which encapsulates Baj’s fascination with nuclear war and features in the Generals series which constitute his most prominent body of work. The present work depicts an absurd character made from found objects of everyday life assembled in an exuberant manner. It recalls in a certain extent Marcel Duchamp’s collages; in 1962 Baj took part in the show The Art of Assemblage in New York in which he met the latter. The collage is also characteristic of Baj’s practice in its use of belts and medals to create the protagonist: a medal is placed on the figure’s neck to create a tie and the figure’s ears and hair are made with curtain belts.
The artwork described above is subject to changes in availability and price without prior notice.
Where applicable ARR will be added.