(Innsbruck 1894 - Rome 1965)
STILL LIFE, 1917
Oil on panel, 25,8 x 37 cm. Signed with the monogram and dated bottom right R.M.B. 17. Titled and signed at the back of the panel Natura morta / Bald[essari]. On the back the label of the gallery Arte Centro, Milan.
The work is framed.
PROVENANCE:
Esterina Marchesini, Padua; Franco Zambolin, Montebelluna; private collection, Como.
EXHIBITIONS:
Maurizio Scudiero, Futurismo dopo Boccioni, Rovereto, Galleria Spazio Arte, April 1992;
Maurizio Scudiero, 12 Futuristi Veneti, Venice, Galleria San Pantalon, October 1995, cat. p. 11, No 2, illustrated in colors.
LITERATURE:
Maurizio Scudiero, Dall'Avanguardia con amore e amarezza, in Arte, no 251, May 1994, Giorgio Mondadori Editore, Milan, 1994;
Maurizio Scudiero, R.M. Baldessari. Catalogo generale ragionato delle opere futuriste, volume II, 1914-1937, opere inedite, aggiunte e integrazioni, Editrice La Grafica.
Baldessari studied at the Accademia in Venice 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.
