Enrico Baj (Milano 1924 – Vergiate 2003)

Enrico Baj founded the Nuclear Movement in 1951, producing a painting based on the disintegration of forms and towards an atomic universe. In the mid-fifties he abandoned this informal language to follow the Dadaist technique of the polymateric collage, expressing desecrating intentions. Thus, for example, anthropomorphic figures are created with objects and waste from everyday life. Starting from this artistic experience Baj contacts with the French Nouveaux Réalistes and with Marcel Duchamp, André Breton and Max Ernst, who push him to a rediscovery of Surrealism. Baj works for thematic cores, developing their subjects with imagination and defining new characters such as Felt, Guermantes, Dame or Generali. Since 1971, with the production of five etching, the Guastalla Graphis Arte gallery has come into contact with the artist that also realizes two multiple oil paintings with the application of medals. This establishes a relationship between the Gallery and Baj that continues over time; in 1984 Baj enthusiastically participated in the celebrations for the centenary of the birth of Amedeo Modigliani by performing a multiple graphic work inspired by the Nudo rosa and an etching that is included in the luxury edition of Modigliani's biography written by his daughter and published in the volume published by Graphis Arte with the title Jeanne Modigliani racconta Modigliani. The collaboration continues even with his wife after the painter's death with the important exhibition Enrico Baj-Selected Works 1956 – 2003, with the presentation of Nicola Miceli at the Galleria Guastalla Centro Arte in 2006. A work Omaggio a Modigliani, in wood, acrylic and collage, is shown in the Casa Natale Amedeo Modigliani in Livorno.