Exhibitions, Italy, Brescia, 08 February 2014
The different souls of the two artists and their world , between social realism and politics , everyday life and eros , landscapes and still lifes , ladies and generals , and who never failed to shine through public engagement and imagination , rigor and reality.
By Andrea Barretta
Preparation of Richard Prevosti
The idea for a link between Enrico Baj and Guttuso , two artists from different generations , we find it in the book that sees them co-authors , in 1987 , titled " Fantasy and Reality " (published by Rizzoli ) , conversations between ideas , fashions and characters of the twentieth century Italian with some detour in Paris and New York. The prologue tells us that July 26, 1986 " eleven o'clock Baj comes from Guttuso Velate , near Varese. Guttuso is in the study, which paints a watermelon split in two juxtaposed with a mug . Baj gives him the manuscript of their conversations recorded in September of the previous year " and paginated in the book. " Then , as if to bring together words and speeches of signs and images, are put to draw together. (...) Head-to- head as if they were playing cards, as part of Cézanne, Baj and Guttuso draw and continue to follow the thread of their talk : David and Courbet, Man Ray and Picasso ... " . But for two painters seem far away in the personal and artistic pursuits that the title of the book well expressed by assigning the " fantasy " Baj and the "reality" to Guttridge, here is a chance to get to discover commonality at least for the art and passion argumentation on painting, and collectible market , through their personal experiences of the protagonists in the history of modernity.
Guttuso (1911-1987) , a native of Bagheria (Palermo), who arrived in Rome in 1937, where he came into contact with the front of the figurative " Roman School " , and Enrico Baj ( 1924-2003 ) was born in Milan , considered one of the main exponents of the fifties of the twentieth century : no more different and yet if the first painted subjects and popular themes ( farmers , washerwomen , loggers , laborers ) , and is present in the strong debate on the social realism and political interference the other reflects a power struggle and fights against the authoritarianism that complaint opposing the bourgeois conventions and the socio-political situations . Not only that . Guttuso will move to Milan and will adhere to "Current" . Express his being a politically active artist as a member of the Communist Party ( its logo ) and joined the Resistance , will be Senator for two terms (1976 and 1979) and one of the founders of the artistic movement " Fronte Nuovo delle Arti " while Baj, intellectual civil commitment against all forms of violence , which inspired more by dada surrealism , he founded years after the nuclear movement and maintains relations with Marcel Duchamp , Yves Klein, Max Ernst , but also with Lucio Fontana and Piero Manzoni.
If the production of Guttuso remain faithful to a style between realistic figurative imagery often autobiographical material consistency by using a paint -soaked everyday experiences , that since the beginning of Baj takes the technique of the " collage " , with the use of trimmings, ribbons , buttons, in a fantasy " playful and sometimes grotesque . Not only that . In a way, even in Guttuso we recognize the technique of assembly , right to observe some of his works , especially more evident in those of large size , ranging according to a logic of assembly of parts separated from each other , in putting together the construction of the content.
If Guttuso scenes is politically connoted as " Partisan murdered ", " Child on the monster " and the " Comice neighborhood " in 1975 and " Funeral of Togliatti ", where the red flags of contrasts and emerges on the grays and whites of the faces of those present , here Baj well as in " Dame " and "General" , as "politically " is characterized in "The funeral of the Anarchist Pinelli " (1972 ), in " Nixon 's Parade " (1974 ) and "Apocalypse " of 1979 to demonstrate a common commitment in years a symbol of social, political and cultural . And provocatively adorned his "figures" with garish and gaudy medals or ribbons or whatever, because "being decorated , receiving a medal to hang on the chest, is the dream of everyone. Be general , commanders , professors, commanders , knights, able to issue orders , dispose of things and events , it is our innermost ambition. "
Enrico Baj has always maintained a sideline writing collaborating with " Phases" and " Il sole 24 ore " and "Corriere della sera" , and the publication of numerous books including " Pataphysics ", " learn to paint ", " Ecology of art. " " All things , facts, people." In addition, it has always been in contact with members of the international literary and artistic and with them he made artist's books with multiple editions in addition to collaboration with André Breton, Marcel Duchamp , Edoardo Sanguineti and Umberto Eco. It founded in 1954 , with the Dane Asger Jorn ( one of the promoters of the Cobra ), the " International Movement for a Bauhaus Imagist " , bringing together some of the first experimental artists in the spirit of the "Bauhaus " . Guttuso also has relations with people of culture and gave speeches in newspapers and periodicals , publishing in one volume, " craft painter ," a selection of tracks from the diary.
Considered the greatest exponent of realism , Guttridge load institutional alternated other subjects such as still life ( as in innovative Cézanne and cubism ) and existential landscapes , warm colors and expressionistic of his land , from lemon yellow to green vegetables , underlined from bright blues and black to surround the space. Then the women , preference in his artistic life , as outlined in their natural femininity . He said that "painting is not difficult," but that it was "thinking " because " paint is to be inspired by what you see and you think , what you will discover ."
Baj notes during the conversation with Guttuso : "You paint the visible, I paint the imaginary. You run the risk of copying, I arbitrariness . " So two cultural and personal stories are different , in the end, a common ground in their risk , " that the art of today , with its unstable mode , its arbitrariness , its superficiality , cuts the link between the painter and the public , makes it impossible to read the work to the viewer . " And both say that the art of imagination or realism , " as one thing can not be separated : from its being communication." On this basis, common Baj and Guttuso you are aiming perfectly.
Andrea Barretta
By Andrea Barretta
Preparation of Richard Prevosti
The idea for a link between Enrico Baj and Guttuso , two artists from different generations , we find it in the book that sees them co-authors , in 1987 , titled " Fantasy and Reality " (published by Rizzoli ) , conversations between ideas , fashions and characters of the twentieth century Italian with some detour in Paris and New York. The prologue tells us that July 26, 1986 " eleven o'clock Baj comes from Guttuso Velate , near Varese. Guttuso is in the study, which paints a watermelon split in two juxtaposed with a mug . Baj gives him the manuscript of their conversations recorded in September of the previous year " and paginated in the book. " Then , as if to bring together words and speeches of signs and images, are put to draw together. (...) Head-to- head as if they were playing cards, as part of Cézanne, Baj and Guttuso draw and continue to follow the thread of their talk : David and Courbet, Man Ray and Picasso ... " . But for two painters seem far away in the personal and artistic pursuits that the title of the book well expressed by assigning the " fantasy " Baj and the "reality" to Guttridge, here is a chance to get to discover commonality at least for the art and passion argumentation on painting, and collectible market , through their personal experiences of the protagonists in the history of modernity.
Guttuso (1911-1987) , a native of Bagheria (Palermo), who arrived in Rome in 1937, where he came into contact with the front of the figurative " Roman School " , and Enrico Baj ( 1924-2003 ) was born in Milan , considered one of the main exponents of the fifties of the twentieth century : no more different and yet if the first painted subjects and popular themes ( farmers , washerwomen , loggers , laborers ) , and is present in the strong debate on the social realism and political interference the other reflects a power struggle and fights against the authoritarianism that complaint opposing the bourgeois conventions and the socio-political situations . Not only that . Guttuso will move to Milan and will adhere to "Current" . Express his being a politically active artist as a member of the Communist Party ( its logo ) and joined the Resistance , will be Senator for two terms (1976 and 1979) and one of the founders of the artistic movement " Fronte Nuovo delle Arti " while Baj, intellectual civil commitment against all forms of violence , which inspired more by dada surrealism , he founded years after the nuclear movement and maintains relations with Marcel Duchamp , Yves Klein, Max Ernst , but also with Lucio Fontana and Piero Manzoni.
If the production of Guttuso remain faithful to a style between realistic figurative imagery often autobiographical material consistency by using a paint -soaked everyday experiences , that since the beginning of Baj takes the technique of the " collage " , with the use of trimmings, ribbons , buttons, in a fantasy " playful and sometimes grotesque . Not only that . In a way, even in Guttuso we recognize the technique of assembly , right to observe some of his works , especially more evident in those of large size , ranging according to a logic of assembly of parts separated from each other , in putting together the construction of the content.
If Guttuso scenes is politically connoted as " Partisan murdered ", " Child on the monster " and the " Comice neighborhood " in 1975 and " Funeral of Togliatti ", where the red flags of contrasts and emerges on the grays and whites of the faces of those present , here Baj well as in " Dame " and "General" , as "politically " is characterized in "The funeral of the Anarchist Pinelli " (1972 ), in " Nixon 's Parade " (1974 ) and "Apocalypse " of 1979 to demonstrate a common commitment in years a symbol of social, political and cultural . And provocatively adorned his "figures" with garish and gaudy medals or ribbons or whatever, because "being decorated , receiving a medal to hang on the chest, is the dream of everyone. Be general , commanders , professors, commanders , knights, able to issue orders , dispose of things and events , it is our innermost ambition. "
Enrico Baj has always maintained a sideline writing collaborating with " Phases" and " Il sole 24 ore " and "Corriere della sera" , and the publication of numerous books including " Pataphysics ", " learn to paint ", " Ecology of art. " " All things , facts, people." In addition, it has always been in contact with members of the international literary and artistic and with them he made artist's books with multiple editions in addition to collaboration with André Breton, Marcel Duchamp , Edoardo Sanguineti and Umberto Eco. It founded in 1954 , with the Dane Asger Jorn ( one of the promoters of the Cobra ), the " International Movement for a Bauhaus Imagist " , bringing together some of the first experimental artists in the spirit of the "Bauhaus " . Guttuso also has relations with people of culture and gave speeches in newspapers and periodicals , publishing in one volume, " craft painter ," a selection of tracks from the diary.
Considered the greatest exponent of realism , Guttridge load institutional alternated other subjects such as still life ( as in innovative Cézanne and cubism ) and existential landscapes , warm colors and expressionistic of his land , from lemon yellow to green vegetables , underlined from bright blues and black to surround the space. Then the women , preference in his artistic life , as outlined in their natural femininity . He said that "painting is not difficult," but that it was "thinking " because " paint is to be inspired by what you see and you think , what you will discover ."
Baj notes during the conversation with Guttuso : "You paint the visible, I paint the imaginary. You run the risk of copying, I arbitrariness . " So two cultural and personal stories are different , in the end, a common ground in their risk , " that the art of today , with its unstable mode , its arbitrariness , its superficiality , cuts the link between the painter and the public , makes it impossible to read the work to the viewer . " And both say that the art of imagination or realism , " as one thing can not be separated : from its being communication." On this basis, common Baj and Guttuso you are aiming perfectly.
Andrea Barretta
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