Enrico Baj (31 October 1924 – 16 June 2003) was an Italian

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

and writer on art. Many of his works show an obsession with

nuclear war Nuclear warfare, also known as atomic warfare, is a War, military conflict or prepared Policy, political strategy that deploys nuclear weaponry. Nuclear weapons are Weapon of mass destruction, weapons of mass destruction; in contrast to conven ...

. He created prints, and sculptures but especially

collage Collage (, from the , "to glue" or "to stick together") is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an assembly of different forms, thus creating a new whole. (Compare with pasti ...

. He was close to 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 ...

and

dada Dada () or Dadaism was an anti-establishment art movement that developed in 1915 in the context of the Great War and the earlier anti-art movement. Early centers for dadaism included Zürich and Berlin. Within a few years, the movement had s ...

movements, and was later associated with

CoBrA COBRA or Cobra, often stylized as CoBrA, was a European avant-garde art group active from 1948 to 1951. The name was coined in 1948 by Christian Dotremont from the initials of the members' home countries' capital cities: Copenhagen (Co), Brussels ...

. As an author, he has been described as a leading promoter of the

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

. He worked with

Umberto Eco Umberto Eco (5 January 1932 – 19 February 2016) was an Italian Medieval studies, medievalist, philosopher, Semiotics, semiotician, novelist, cultural critic, and political and social commentator. In English, he is best known for his popular ...

among other collaborators. He had a long interest in the pseudo-philosophy 'pataphysics.

Biography

He was born in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

into a wealthy family, but left Italy in 1944 having upset the authorities and to avoid

conscription Conscription, also known as the draft in the United States and Israel, is the practice in which the compulsory enlistment in a national service, mainly a military service, is enforced by law. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it conti ...

. He studied at the Milan University law faculty and the Brera Academy of Art. In 1951 he founded the arte nucleare movement with Sergio Dangelo, which unlike

abstract art Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a Composition (visual arts), composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. ''Abstract art'', ''non-figurative art'', ''non- ...

was overtly

political Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

. Baj himself was aligned with the

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

movement. His most well-known pieces are probably the series of "Generals": absurd characters made from

found object A found object (a calque from the French ''objet trouvé''), or found art, is art created from undisguised, but often modified, items or products that are not normally considered materials from which art is made, often because they already hav ...

s such as belts or medals. He made numerous works using motifs from other artists, from

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 - 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested o ...

Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

. Sometimes he recreated entire works of other painters. In 1972 the public display of a major work by Bai, ''

The Funeral of the Anarchist Pinelli ''The Funeral Of The Anarchist Pinelli'' is a 1972 artwork by the Italian artist Enrico Baj (1924–2003) and is his most noted and controversial piece. It is a large scale mixed-media twelve meter long installation which encompasses an entire wal ...

'' (a reference to

Carlo Carrà Carlo Carrà (; February 11, 1881 – April 13, 1966) was an Italian painter and a leading figure of the Futurist movement that flourished in Italy during the beginning of the 20th century. In addition to his many paintings, he wrote a number ...

's painting ''

The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli ''The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli'' (''Il Funerale dell’anarchico Galli'') is a painting by Italy, Italian painter Carlo Carrà. It was finished in 1911, during the artist's Futurism (art), futurist phase, and is considered Carrà's most fam ...

'' of 1911), was banned after the murder of the police officer believed to be responsible for

Giuseppe Pinelli Giuseppe "Pino" Pinelli (21 October 1928 – 15 December 1969) was an Italian railroad worker and anarchist, who died while being detained by the ''Polizia di Stato'' in 1969. Pinelli was a member of the Milan-based anarchist association named ...

's death in custody. However, his work continued to be political. In 1989 he designed thirty marionettes for '' Le Bleu-blanc-rouge et le noir'', an opera by Italian composer

Lorenzo Ferrero Lorenzo Ferrero (; born 1951) is an Italian composer, librettist, author, and book editor. He started composing at an early age and has written over a hundred compositions thus far, including twelve operas, three ballets, and numerous orchestral, ...

to a libretto by

Anthony Burgess John Anthony Burgess Wilson, (; 25 February 1917 – 22 November 1993) who published under the name Anthony Burgess, was an English writer and composer. Although Burgess was primarily a comic writer, his Utopian and dystopian fiction, dy ...

, written for the bicentenary of the French Revolution. In his last years, he created a series of paintings in protest at the election of

Silvio Berlusconi Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; 29 September 193612 June 2023) was an Italian Media proprietor, media tycoon and politician who served as the prime minister of Italy in three governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a mem ...

. He died in 2003 in

Vergiate Vergiate is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Varese in the Italian region Lombardy, located about 45 km northwest of Milan and about 15 km southwest of Varese. As of 31 December 2018 it had a population of 8,716 Vergiate bo ...

, Italy.

References

External links

Obituary

Biography of Enrico Baj
- looking in detail at his anarchist politics

Daily Bleed Calendar

NO!art groupe * :it:Pittura Nucleare The Italian page for the arte nucleare * Discussion of ''Fire! Fire!'' by

Janina Ramirez Janina Sara Maria Ramirez (; ' Maleczek; born 7 July 1980), sometimes credited as Nina Ramirez, is a British art historian, cultural historian, and TV presenter. She specialises in interpreting symbols and examining works of art within their h ...

and Ricky Martin of Art Ninja
Art Detective Podcast, 15 Mar 2017
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baj, Enrico 1924 births 2003 deaths Artists from Milan 20th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 21st-century Italian painters Italian anarchists Italian contemporary artists Brera Academy alumni Italian surrealist artists Puppet designers Puppetry in Italy Italian collage artists