Fafa Fine Art Gallery

Enrico Baj
1924 Milan, 2003 Varese
A versatile spirit, capable of great
passions, Enrico Baj lawyer, essayist,
anarchist, sculptor, painter, Satrap
and emperor of Milanese Pataphysics,
poured in his own works that
curiosity for life which characterised
his human journey. His innate
curiosity took him to first study
medicine and then transfer to law
and study, at the same time, at the
Academy of Fine Arts of Brera; this
placed him in crossroads and at a
meeting point between Surrealism
and Dadaism. This same curiosity
drove him to establish two painting
movements, that of Nuclear painting
and that for an imaginist Bauhaus.
It also drove him to collaborate
with writers such as Raymond
Queneau and Umberto Eco as well
as for magazines like “Il Gesto”, “Direzioni”,
“Phases” and newspapers,
before becoming an essayist with
works like “Impariamo la pittura”
(Let’s learn painting) (Rizzoli, 1985),
“Fantasia e realtà” (Fantasy and Reality)
with Renato Guttuso (Rizzoli,
1987), and “Scritti sull’arte: dal Futurismo
statico alla merda d’artista”
(Text on Art: from static Futurism to
artist’s shit) (A.A.A, 1996).
The desire to experiment which
characterised him is found in his
failed solution of stylistic continuity,
in the explosion of colours and the
lively shapes of his works in which
different materials fuse and mix in
a knowledgeable collage between
painting, knick-knacks and fabric.
Playful, ironic works which are,
however, aware of social problems
and which communicate a message
that often ridicules power.