Enrico Baj

Italian painter, sculptor, and essayist. After studying law and attending the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, in 1951 he promoted the Nuclear Art Movement and began exhibiting his informal works. He also founded the International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus, opposing the forced rationalization and geometrization of art. His works feature polymaterial and polychromatic collages that highlight the playful aspect of his art through the ever-changing use of materials, while in other works he addresses social issues of his time with a civil engagement.
In the 1980s, he moved away from collage, focusing on figurative representations of the imaginary and the fantastic. During the same decade, with the Metamorphoses and Metaphors series, he further developed this imaginative and fantastical figurative style. In the 1990s, with the Tribal Masks cycle, he assembled modern civilization’s scraps to create ironic and colorful masks, followed by the Felt works and Totems. He collaborated with Italian and international poets and writers, producing artist books accompanied by prints.

Works on display:

• Baj’s Chess, chess set, wood, fabric, and various materials, 1988