George Baldessin (19 May 1939 – 9 August 1978) was an Italian–Australian artist.

Early life and education

George Victor Joseph (George) Baldessin was born on 19 May 1939 in

San Biagio di Callalta San Biagio di Callalta (; ) is a (municipality) in the province of Treviso, Veneto, Northeast Italy, north-eastern Italy. It is the birthplace of Pierre Cardin. History Ancient history Today's San Biagio di Callalta was once inhabited by Veneti ...

, Veneto, Italy.Zimmer, Jenny
Baldessin, George Victor Joseph (1939–1978)
''Australian Dictionary of Biography''. Retrieved on 21 February 2016. His father, Luigi, was born in 1914 in

Monastier di Treviso Monastier di Treviso is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Treviso in the Italian region Veneto, located about northeast of Venice and about east of Treviso. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 3,732 and an area of .All dem ...

; his mother, Carmen Cervi, was born in 1920 in nearby

Montebelluna Montebelluna is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, Italy, approximately northwest of Venice. It has an estimated population of 31,000. Montebelluna borders the following municipalities: Altivole, Caerano di San Marco, Cornuda, Crocetta del Montello ...

and emigrated with her family to

Queenstown, Tasmania Queenstown is a historic mining town in the West Coast, Tasmania, West Coast region of the island of Tasmania, Australia. It is in a valley on the western slopes of Mount Owen (Tasmania), Mount Owen on the West Coast Range. At the , Queenstown h ...

at the age of five, gaining Australian citizenship in 1928 and moving back to Italy two years later.Lindsay, Robert and Memory Jockisch Holloway. ''George Baldessin: Sculpture and Etchings. A memorial exhibition'', National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne 1983, pp. 9–22. In 1939, a few months after George's birth, Carmen returned to Australia; Luigi planned to join her with George soon afterwards, but was forced to postpone their departure due to the advent of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Father and son finally embarked for Australia on board the ship ''Ugolino Vivaldi'' in 1949, landing at

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

on 17 February. Both Luigi and George were naturalized in 1954; later in his life, George chose to conceal his Italian childhood, claiming to friends and colleagues that he was born in Melbourne.Lindsay, Robert and Memory Jockisch Holloway. ''George Baldessin: Sculpture and Etchings. A memorial exhibition'', National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne 1983, pp. 25–37.Perin, Victoria
George Baldessin’s first view of the city: The formative influence of the Italian sculptor Alik Cavaliere on George Baldessin
Retrieved on 21 February 2016. At 13, having lied about his real age, George Baldessin began working as a part-time waiter at the Menzies Hotel in Melbourne; Owen Gammel, a fellow waiter and art student, was positively impressed by the artistic quality of his sketches of

Port Melbourne Port Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-west of the Melbourne central business district, located within the Cities of City of Melbourne, Melbourne and City of Port Phillip, Port Phillip Local government ...

docks, and encouraged the young George to enroll in an art school.McGrath, Samantha. ''Baldessin: a genuine Renaissance man'', The Weekend Australian, Magazine 7, 19–20 August 1978. From 1958 to 1961 Baldessin attended the Royal Melbourne Technical College, where he gradually lost interest in painting and became more interested in sculpture and

printmaking Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proces ...

; among his professors was Tate Adams.George Baldessin
''The Cbus Collection of Australian Art''. Retrieved on 23 February 2016. After gaining his Diploma of Fine Art (Painting), in 1962 Baldessin moved to London, where he studied printmaking at the

Chelsea School of Art Chelsea College of Arts is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London, a public art and design university in London, England. It offers further and higher education courses in fine art, graphic design, interior design, produ ...

; in September of the same year he visited Spain. In this period, and most notably during his English stay, Baldessin discovered many artists that would profoundly influence his later production, including

Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England under King James I. Bacon argued for the importance of nat ...

David Hockney David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English Painting, painter, Drawing, draughtsman, Printmaking, printmaker, Scenic design, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considere ...

, Peter Blake,

Ingmar Bergman Ernst Ingmar Bergman (14 July 1918 – 30 July 2007) was a Swedish film and theatre director and screenwriter. Widely considered one of the greatest and most influential film directors of all time, his films have been described as "profoun ...

, and

Luis Buñuel Luis Buñuel Portolés (; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish and Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians and directors to be one of the greatest and ...

. In 1963 he attended the

Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera The Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera (), also known as the or Brera Academy, is a state-run tertiary public academy of fine arts in Milan, Italy. It shares its history, and its main building, with the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan's main public mu ...

in Milan, under professor Marino Marini and his assistant,

Alik Cavaliere Alik Cavaliere (1926–1998) was an Italian sculptor. He spent his life researching the meaning of life, freedom, nature, and history. An atheist and libertarian, he didn't believe in any preconceived, final structure of society, the environment, ...

. Cavaliere soon became Baldessin's mentor, and the

surrealist Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

vocabulary of his work played a decisive role in shaping the young artist's aesthetic.

Career

Winfield building collins street melbourne

Baldessin returned to Australia on 8 July 1963, and held his first one-person exhibition at Melbourne's Argus Gallery in June 1964; as pointed out by Memory Jockisch Holloway, the Argus Gallery exhibit "was the ''rite de passage'' which marked Baldessin's coming of age in Australian art". In the following years he had his sculptures and prints displayed in various Australian galleries. In 1966 he won the "Alcorso-Sekers" Travelling Scholarship Award for Sculpture, and spent two weeks in Japan;George Baldessin
''Australian Galleries''. Retrieved on 10 March 2020. moreover, he took part in the exhibition 'Australian Prints Today' at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

in Washington, D.C. Baldessin married Shirley Anne ('Tess') Edwards on 10 April 1971 (he had been previously married to Alison Patricia Walmsley from 1966 to 1970); Tess gave him two sons: Gabriel (1975) and Auguste (1977). In 1968 Baldessin opened an art studio in the ''Winfield building'',

Collins Street, Melbourne Collins Street is a major street in the Melbourne central business district, central business district of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It was laid out in the first survey of Melbourne, the original 1837 Hoddle Grid, and soon became the most ...

; over the next few years, the place evolved into a vibrant

atelier An atelier () is the private workshop or studio of a professional artist in the fine or decorative arts or an architect, where a principal master and a number of assistants, students, and apprentices can work together producing fine art or vi ...

and meeting place for young artists and students. In 1970 he was awarded the Geelong Print Prize, and in 1971 he won the Comalco Invitation Award for Sculpture for having invented silver aluminium foil print. Some of the other awards he received include the Maitland Print Prize (1967 and 1970), the Shepparton Print Prize (1970, shared with Jan Senbergs), and a Drawing Prize at the Second International Biennale for Drawing in

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

(1970). In 1974, following his retrospective exhibit at the Mornington Peninsula Arts Centre, the

National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...

acquired 279 of Baldessin's etching plates and prints: this set was the first nucleus of the National Gallery's collection of his works. Together with

Imants Tillers Imants Tillers (born 1950), is an Australian artist, curator and writer. He lives and works in Cooma, New South Wales. Early life and education Imants Tillers was born in Sydney in 1950, the child of Latvian immigrants. In 1973 he graduated fro ...

, Baldessin represented Australia at the XIII

São Paulo Art Biennial The São Paulo Art Biennial ( Portuguese: ''Bienal de São Paulo'') was founded in 1951 and has been held every two years since. It is the second oldest art biennial in the world after the Venice Biennale (in existence since 1895), which serves as ...

in 1975, exhibiting the set of etchings ''Occasional Images from a City Chamber'', and the sculptural work ''Occasional Screens with Seating Arrangement''. From 1975 to 1977 Baldessin lived in Paris; during his French sojourn he attended the Lacourière-Frélaut engraving workshop and hung out with Imants Tillers, soon becoming close friends with him.

Death and legacy

George Baldessin was injured in a car accident and died at

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

on 9 August 1978, at the age of 39. The

National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and list of most visited art museums in the world, most visited art mu ...

dedicated him a memorial exhibition in 1983; the

Heide Museum of Modern Art The Heide Museum of Modern Art, also known as Heide, is an art museum in Bulleen, Victoria, Bulleen, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. Established in 1981, the museum exhibits modern art, modern and contemporary a ...

housed a retrospective of his drawings in 1991, and the

Art Gallery of New South Wales The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most import ...

featured him as a focus artist in 1999. A Baldessin Foundation Travelling Fellowship for young sculptors was established in 1998. In 2001 Tess restored Baldessin's etching studio in

St Andrews St Andrews (; ; , pronounced ʰʲɪʎˈrˠiː.ɪɲ is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fourth-largest settleme ...

and converted it to a shared workshop, The Baldessin Press & Studio. The

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

named one of its campus structures (the Baldessin Precinct Building) after the artist. In 2018 the National Gallery of Victoria showcased the work of George Baldessin and

Brett Whiteley Brett Whiteley Order of Australia, AO (7 April 1939 – 15 June 1992) was an Australian artist. He is represented in the collections of all the large Australian galleries, and was twice winner of the Archibald Prize, Archibald, Wynne Prize, ...

in an exhibition titled Parallel Visions, “featuring some of their most iconic works.”

Work

Baldessin considered printmaking and sculpture two complementary arts. He once asserted: "What better place to work out sculpture than on metal plates? … Drawing on metal is more like the end result of sculpture than using a paper and pen". One of Baldessin's most iconic works is ''Pear – version number 2'' (1973), a group of seven steel pears placed in the forecourt of the National Gallery of Australia. Pears are an important symbol in the artist's iconography—representing women, sensual eating and physical desire—and prove the great influence of Alik Cavaliere's art on Baldessin. Baldessin's work can be found in the collections of the

, all state galleries and several regional galleries, as well as in many university collections. The New York

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

owns two of his etchings: ''Head Through Blind'' (1967) and ''Banquet for No Eating No. 2'' (1971).George Baldessin
''MoMA''. Retrieved on 23 February 2016.

References

External links

The Baldessin Press & Studio.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baldessin, George 1939 births 1978 deaths Australian printmakers 20th-century Australian sculptors Australian people of Italian descent