Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 13

Enrico Baj
Italian Surrealist Pop Art Serigraph Enrico Baj Pop Art Silkscreen Foil Print

c.1975

About the Item

Enrico Baj (1924-2003) Italian, limited edition print. Hand signed and numbered Signature on the corner. Edition 44 of 45. metallic silver aluminum. Baj was an Italian artist best known for his political collages, prints, paintings, and sculptures. He was close to the surrealist and dada movements, and was later associated with CoBrA. Italian artist Enrico Baj (1924-2003) was born in Milan into a wealthy family, but left Italy in 1944 having upset the authorities and to avoid conscription. He studied at the Milan University law faculty and the Brera Academy of Art. Italian Surrealist Pop Art. Artist, attorney, ironist, writer, sharp critic, and political dissenter, Enrico Baj brought an urgent, refreshing and unique voice to the art of his time. In 1951 he founded the Movimento d'Arte Nucleare (the Nuclear Art Movement, or Art for the Nuclear Age) with Sergio D'angelo whose manifesto stated that its members "desire to demolish all the 'isms' of painting that inevitably lapses into academicism, whatever their origins may be." Baj took inspiration from the most radical notion of Surrealism (he joined the COBRA Group in the late 1940s), adhered to Ubu's sardonic and rocambolesque spirit and André Breton (in Le Surréalisme et la peinture) claimed him for his movement. His work was acclaimed by Gillo Dorfles as kitsch pioneer and embraced by artists like Asger Jorn, Marcel Duchamp Andy Warhol and Max Ernst. Baj's work reflected a necessity for continuous re-evaluation and renovation in which the experimental process took precedent over the realized objects. Enrico Baj was one of the most important contemporary Italian artists. Playing a leading role in the Fifties and Sixties avantgarde alongside Lucio Fontana, Asger Jorn, Manzoni and Yves Klein, Baj established close ties with Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, E. L. T. Mesens, and other artists of the Cobra group, Karel Appel and others, with New Realism, Surrealism and Pataphysics. Baj's output includes his Modificazioni paintings (1959-60), a visual farce in which Baj modified kitschy commercial paintings in order to push further still the Dada anti-art idea, and his Idraulica series (2002) consisting of sculptures and assemblages made from hydraulic plumbing fittings. Baj's Generali, gorilla-like figures with ferocious expressions, laid down upon a floral fabric background, whose effeminacy clashes with the general's predatory qualities, making them even more absurd and demonstrating both the comedy and the tragedy of the frail human ego as it searches for validation and self-worth. A series of his portraits, assemblages in which Baj address the absurdity of human self-perception and a critic to the provincialism of the Italian bourgeoisie will also be exhibited. Previous main exhibitions include: The Art of Assemblage, MoMA, New York, 1961; Pittura a Milano dal 1945 al 1964, Milan, 1964; XXII Biennale di Venezia, Venice, 1964; Baj's at Marconi, Studio Marconi, Milan, 1967; Gemeentemuseum, L'Aja, 1967; Palazzo Grassi, Venice, 1971; Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago, 1971; Enrico Baj. Opere 1951-2001, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Roma, 2001/2002. Many of his works show an obsession with nuclear war. He created prints, sculptures but especially collage. He was close to the surrealist and dada movements, and was later associated with CoBrA. As an author he has been described as a leading promoter of the avant-garde. He worked with Umberto Eco among other collaborators. He had a long interest in the pseudo-philosophy 'pataphysics. In 1951 he founded the arte nucleare movement with Sergio D'Angelo, which unlike abstract art was overtly political. Baj himself was aligned with the anarchist movement. His most well-known pieces are probably the series of "Generals": absurd characters made from found objects such as belts or medals. This one has nude angel cherubs and nudes, mildly erotic, cartoon imagery. He made numerous works using motifs from other artists, from Leonardo da Vinci to Pablo Picasso. Sometimes he recreated entire works of other painters. Baj had his debut in New York in 1960, as part of the exhibition Surrealist Intrusion in the Enchanters’ Domain, organized by Marcel Duchamp and André Breton at D’Arcy Galleries. The following year, his work was included in the influential exhibition Art of Assemblage (1961), organized by William Seitz at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. In 1964 a room devoted to Baj’s work was presented in the 22nd Venice Biennial, and three major retrospectives followed in 1971, held at Palazzo Grassi, Venice; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; and Musée de l’Athénée, Geneva. Recent exhibitions were held in the following venues, among others: the 55th Venice Biennial (2013), Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro, Milan (2013), and Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome (2001-2002).
  • Creator:
    Enrico Baj (1924-2003, Italian)
  • Creation Year:
    c.1975
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 29.5 in (74.93 cm)Width: 22 in (55.88 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Surfside, FL
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU38210479562
More From This SellerView All
  • Mod 1970s Israeli Judaica Foil Print 12 Tribes of Israel Zodiac Signs Hebrew
    Located in Surfside, FL
    Genre: Israeli Batia Adith Subject: Biblical Medium: Print Surface: Paper Dimensions w/Frame: 30 1/2" x 21 1/2"
    Category

    1970s Modern Figurative Prints

    Materials

    Foil

  • Surrealist Carborundum Etching, Homage a Rodin
    Located in Surfside, FL
    This is from a portfolio Hommage A Rodin. It included a lithograph by Henry Moore, Ossip Zadkine, Berto Lardera, an etching by Robert Couturier and an etching...
    Category

    1960s Surrealist Abstract Prints

    Materials

    Etching

  • Surrealist Figurative Aquatint Etching California Modernist Sculptor Artist
    By Jack Zajac
    Located in Surfside, FL
    Jack Zajac, American, born 1929 1964 Etching and aquatint hand printed on Fabriano paper, pencil signed and editioned. Edition Roman Numeral III Image: 12 9/16 x 8 5/8 in. (31.9 x 2...
    Category

    1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints

    Materials

    Etching, Aquatint

  • 1970s Modernist Swiss Colorful Surrealism Signed Dada Lithograph Andre Thomkins
    By André Thomkins
    Located in Surfside, FL
    This one is titled "Walk in a Broken Lake" and depicts a surreal figure of a robed woman walking in an abstract landscape in yellow, green, red and blue with a Salvador Dali esque quality about it. Published by Edition Hansjörg Mayer, Stuttgart They published concrete poetry and art books by Mark Boyle, Richard Hamilton, Dorothy Iannone, John Latham, Tom Phillips, Dieter Roth, André Thompkins and Emmett Williams, to name just a few. André Thomkins (1930 - 1985) was a Swiss painter, illustrator, and poet. He attended art-school, taught by Max von Moos, 1947 – 1949 and the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Paris, France, 1950. From 1952, he lived in Germany and taught at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf between 1971 and 1973. Thomkins painted and drew ironic and fantastic pictures influenced by surrealism and dadaism. Together with Dieter Roth and Daniel Spoerri he prepared works of Eat Art. He also was a writer of palindromes. His friends and collaborators included Daniel Spoerri, Dieter Roth, George Brecht, Richard Hamilton and Karl Gerstner, Thomkins gained a reputation as an ‘artist’s artist’, and is considered one of the most important Swiss artists of the second half of the twentieth century.He died in 1985. His work is currently represented by Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Switzerland. Select group exhibitions: 2018 Kunsthalle Krems, 'Pablo Picasso. Arshile Gorky, Andy Warhol. Sculptures and Works on Paper. Hubert Looser Collection', Krems, Austria 2017 Kunsthandel Wolfgang Werner, 'Martin Barré, Karl Otto Götz, Ernst Wilhelm Nay, André Thomkins', Berlin, Germany 2013 Fabian & Claude Walter Galerie, 'Schweizer Avantgarde Kunst nach 1940', Zurich, Switzerland 2009 The Modern Institute, 'Thomas Houseago, Dieter Roth, Andre Thomkins', Glasgow, England Museum of Modern Art, 'Compass in Hand: Selections from the Judith Rothschild Collection', NYC 2004 Kunsthandel Wolfgang Werner, 'Arman, Baumeister, Götz, Graubner, Tàpies, Thomkins', Berlin, Germany 1994 Kunstmuseum Solothurn, 'Eine Schenkung. Grafik von Eduardo Chillida, Antoni Tàpies, Alexander Calder, Jean Dubuffet, Ben Nicholson, Giacometti, Tinguely, Thomkins', Solothurn, Switzerland 1992 Galerie Littmann, Tinguely zu Ehren. A Tribute to Jean Tinguely. Hommage à Tinguely, Basel, 1988 Museum Ludwig, 'Uebrigens sterben immer die anderen. Marcel Duchamp und die Avantgarde seit 1950', Cologne, Germany 1987 Aargauer Kunsthaus, 'Otto Grimm. Marc-Antoine Fehr. Christoph Gredinger', Aarau, Switzerland Cercle Municipal, 'Art contemporain suisse. Collection de la Banque du Gothard', Luxembourg, 1985 Centre national d'art et de culture Georges Pompidou, 'Livres d'artistes', Paris, France Rathaus, 'Claude Sandoz – Hans Schärer...
    Category

    1970s Surrealist Figurative Prints

    Materials

    Lithograph, Offset

  • Surrealist Figurative Aquatint Etching California Modernist Sculptor Artist
    By Jack Zajac
    Located in Surfside, FL
    Jack Zajac, American, born 1929 1964 Etching and aquatint hand printed on Fabriano paper, pencil signed and editioned. This one depicts winged angels. Edition Roman Numeral III Ima...
    Category

    1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints

    Materials

    Etching, Aquatint

  • Surrealist Figurative Aquatint Etching California Modernist Sculptor Artist
    By Jack Zajac
    Located in Surfside, FL
    Jack Zajac, American, born 1929 1964 Etching and aquatint hand printed on Fabriano paper, pencil signed and editioned. Edition Roman Numeral III Image: 12 9/16 x 8 5/8 in. (31.9 x 2...
    Category

    1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints

    Materials

    Etching, Aquatint

You May Also Like

Recently Viewed

View All