Enrico Baj

The horrors of war and fascism shaped Enrico Baj's youth

Enrico Baj's life actually had an auspicious start: born into a wealthy family on 31st October 1924, many doors were open to him. His creative career was foreshadowed early on and Baj began painting at the age of 14. Despite this, he studied medicine at the University of Milan in 1942 before fleeing to Geneva in 1944 to avoid conscription under the fascist rule in Italy. Although Baj returned to Milan at the end of the war, he did not resume his medical studies, but instead studied art at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Bera. He also simultaneously trained as a lawyer, a field in which he earned his living until 1956. Under the impact of the Second World War, Enrico Baj became a staunch opponent of the war and a tireless warner of impending nuclear catastrophe; together with Sergio Dangelo, he founded the Movimento Nucleare in 1951 and wrote the Manifesto della Pittura Nucleare. Despite these political activities, however, he did not forget his artistic vocation; in 1953 he began a close collaboration with the Danish artist Asger Jorn, and also cultivated an exchange with many other important artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Lucio Fontana and Yves Klein.

Enrico Baj always had something to say with his art

For Enrico Baj, art was never just the exercise of a creative impulse, but always an invitation to make a concrete statement, to engage beyond the studio that is the artist's protective space. This is why Baj dealt extensively with art theory and protested against developments he disliked, such as the geometrisation and rationalisation of art. He never did anything truly apolitical in his work; the convinced anarchist supported, criticised, demanded and made his voice heard. With the greatest passion, he rose up against a possible nuclear war, the looming shadow of which darkened his paintings of skilfully distributed Ripolin varnish in the 1950s. It was part of the artist's nature that once he had grasped a subject, he pursued it with obsessive vigour, exhausting and almost squeezing it out. He was just as energetic in his search for new creative forms and painting techniques, and collages made of oil paint, coloured glass, fabric and cotton wool showed his proximity to Surrealism and Dadaism, without the artist - who was always on the move - ever being completely absorbed in one of these directions.

Enrico Baj remained critical to the end

Enrico Baj’s absurdly exaggerated images of figures made from belts and medals, the Generali ('Generals'), became famous. Baj had an affinity for the absurd and had been a member of the Collège de 'Pataphysique since the 1960s. In 1972, he even caused a minor scandal when the exhibition of his painting Funerali dell'anarchico Pinelli, which depicted the funeral of the anarchist Giuseppe Pinelli, was banned in order to prevent riots. Even in his final years, Baj did not cease to get involved with his art, and protested against the election of Silvio Berlusconi as Italian Prime Minister with a series of paintings. 

Enrico Baj died on 16th June 2003 in Vergiate, Italy.