ENRICO BAJ* (Mailand 1926 - 2003 Vergiate)

ENRICO BAJ* (Milan 1926 - 2003 Vergiate) The commander color lithpgraphy and metal embossing/paper, 65,1 x 49,8 cm Signature stamp Baj ESTIMATE °€ 60 - 100 STARTING PRICE °€ 60 Enrico Baj was an Italian artist. Baj was born into a wealthy family; he left Milan in 1944 to avoid military service for the fascist Italian Social Republic. After the war, Baj studied at the Faculty of Law at the University of Milan and at the Brera Academy of Art. In 1951 he founded an artist group against nuclear war with Sergio Dangelo. Baj was editor of the “Movimento Nucleare”, the “Manifesto della pittura nucleare” and the “Contro lo Stile” as well as, with Asger Jorn, the magazine “Il Gesto”. He was an important representative of the Italian avant-garde and a lifelong supporter of the anarchist movement. Many works show an almost obsessive preoccupation with nuclear war. He created prints, sculptures and, above all, collages. He showed proximity to Surrealism and Dadaism and was later associated with Pop Art. His written works are classified as avant-garde, and he often collaborated with Umberto Eco and others. Since the mid-1960s, Baj was a very active member of the Collège de 'Pataphysique; In 2022 he was elevated to the rank of “Transcendent Satrap”, like Marcel Duchamp and Max Ernst before him. Baj's best-known work is a series of "Generals": absurdly exaggerated figures made from objets trouvés such as belts and medals. In 1972, the exhibition of one of his major works, Funerali dell'anarchico Pinelli (Funeral of the Anarchist Pinelli), was held after the murder of a police officer , who was blamed for Pinelli's death, was banned. The image is a homage to Carlo Carrà’s famous painting “Funerali dell’anarchico Galli”. Baj's work remained political. In his last years he created a series of protests against the right-wing government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi from 1994. PLEASE NOTE: The purchase price consists of the highest bid plus the buyer's premium, sales tax and, if applicable, the fee of artists resale rights. In the case of normal taxation (marked °), a premium of 24% is added to the highest bid. The mandatory sales tax of 13%, for photographs 20%, is added to the sum of the highest bid and the buyer's premium. The buyer's premium amounts to 28% in case of differential taxation. The sales tax is included in the differential taxation.