Description
Enrico Baj*
(Milan 1926 – 2003 Vergiate)
The General
mixed media on paper, 65 x 50 cm
signed Baj
ESTIMATE °€ 80 – € 100
STARTING PRICE €80
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 artists’ group campaigning against nuclear war with Sergio Dangelo. Baj was editor of *Movimento Nucleare*, the *Manifesto della pittura nucleare* and *Contro lo Stile*, as well as, with Asger Jorn, the magazine *Il Gesto*. He was a leading figure in the Italian avant-garde and a lifelong supporter of the anarchist movement. Many of his works reveal an almost obsessive preoccupation with nuclear war. He created prints, sculptures and, above all, collages. He showed affinities with Surrealism and Dadaism and was later associated with Pop Art. His written works are classified as avant-garde, and he frequently collaborated with Umberto Eco and others. From the mid-1960s onwards, 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, an 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 had been blamed for Pinelli’s death – led to the exhibition being banned. The image pays homage to Carlo Carrà’s famous painting “Funerali dell’anarchico Galli”. Baj’s work remained political. In his final years, he created a series of protests against the right-wing government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi from 1994 onwards.
PLEASE NOTE:
The purchase price comprises the highest bid plus the buyer’s premium, VAT and, where applicable, the artists’ resale rights fee and platform fee. In the case of standard taxation (marked °), a premium of 24% is added to the highest bid. The mandatory sales tax of 13 per cent (20 per cent for photographs) is added to the sum of the highest bid, the buyer’s premium and the platform fee.
The buyer’s premium amounts to 28 per cent in the case of differential taxation. The sales tax is included in the differential taxation.
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About the sale
Modern Art, Lots 1–508: Starts at 10.00 am CET; Lots 509–981: Starts at 4.00 pm CET
Auction location
Auction time
09/30/2026 at 10:00 AM
Lot description modified on 09/25/2026 at 2:13 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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