Mattia Jona, Master Drawings and Prints, Japanese Prints - Piazzetta Guastalla 5, 20122 Milan, Italy, tel (+39) 02 8053315

ROBERTO MARCELLO (IRAS) BALDESSARI (Innsbruck 1894 - Roma 1965) A) PRIMAVERA, 1917; B) BALLERINA, 1918; C) TAVOLO-BAR, 1919
Etchings, fine impressions on wove from the edition of 30 printed in Verona at the Calcografia Cestini, in 1959, under the supervision of the artist. At the time of the creation of the plates only a few proof impressions were printed.
See Tullio Fait, Roberto Marcello Baldessari incisore futurista, contributo a una prima catalogazione dell'incisione futurista italiana, estratto dagli atti dell'Accademia Roveretana degli Agiati, Serie VI, vol. V, Fasc. A 1965; nos 5, 6, 10.
A) to the platemark mm 155 x 125, numbered and signed in pencil 20/30 R. M. Baldessari. B) to the platemark mm 155 x 125, numbered and signed in pencil prova di stampa R. M. Baldessari. C) to the platemark mm 171 x 143, numbered and signed in pencil prova di stampa R. M. Baldessari.

Baldessari studied at the Venetian Academy under Guglielmo Ciardi for painting and under Emanuele Brugnoli for printmaking. In 1914 he moved to Florence, where he joined the futurist group, which included Ottone Rosai, Ardengo Soffici and Primo Conti. In those same years a trip to Milan allowed him to make the acquaintance of Marinetti and other Lombard futurists. Around 1920 he began to travel in Europe, coming in touch with Liebermann, Archipenko, Kurt Schwitters, Vordemberge-Gildewart and Justus Bier. Baldessari returned to Italy in 1925, bringing his art closer to the figurative and beginning an intense period of exhibitions, both at home and abroad, during which the artist practiced assiduously painting, printmaking and, since the thirties, the fresco decoration. In 1940 Baldessari moved to Rovereto where he joined the local group of 'Der Blaue Reiter' and the Associazione degli Incisori Veneziani.