George Joseph Victor Baldessin b. 1939 San Biagio di Callalta, Italy

  • Artist (Sculptor), (Printmaker)
Widely travelled, Baldessin honed his art through formal training and collaborative projects. He was a highly respected printmaker who studied at the Chelsea School of Art in London before teaching in the printmaking department at RMIT in Melbourne. In 1975 he was represented in the Bienal de Sao Paulo in Brazil and despite his premature death in a car accident at the age of 39, he is well represe
Talk | Version history | Updated Oct. 19, 2011 | Created Jan. 1, 1996
Name
George Joseph Victor Baldessin
Birth date
1939
Birth place
San Biagio di Callalta, Italy
Death date
1978
Death place
Victoria
Gender
Male
Roles
  • Artist (Sculptor)
  • Artist (Printmaker)
Residence
  • c.1975- Paris, France
  • c.1967- Japan
  • 1963- 1978 Melbourne, Vic.
  • 1962- 1963 Milan, Italy
  • 1961- 1962 London, England, UK
  • 1949- 1961 Melbourne, Vic.
  • 1939- 1949 Italy
Other Occupation
  • Art teacher
Arrival
  • 1949 (Arrived Melbourne, Vic.)
Active Period
  • 1960- 1978
Languages
  • English
Training
  • c.1962- c.1963 Brera Academy, Milan, Italy
  • 1962 Chelsea School of Art, London, England, UK
  • Fine Art Diploma 1961, c.1960- c.1961 Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne, Vic.
Is Indigenous
No
Initial Record Data Source
  • Black and white artists

printmaker, sculptor and teacher, was born in San Biagio di Callalta, Italy. He migrated with his father in 1949 to join his mother in Carlton, Melbourne. After studying at Royal Melbourne Institure of Technology [RMIT] (Fine Art Diploma 1961) he went to London and began studying printmaking at the Chelsea School of Art in 1962. Later that year he moved to Milan and spent a year with Marino Marini at the Brera Academy. He returned to Australia in 1963 and became part-time instructor in the Printmaking Dept of RMIT, full-time in 1968-74. He held his first solo exhibition, featuring sculpture, drawings and prints, in 1964. Visited Japan in 1967. Set up a studio in Paris in 1975, the year he was represented in the Bienal de Sao Paulo. In 1976, with Imants Tillers (b.1950), he did a series of etching/aquatints, According to Des Esseintes (ill. MacIntyre, in Art Gallery of New South Wales collection). Albury Regional Art Centre owns his Personage and Entrances 1974, etching, 2 sheets (ill. Hanson, cat. 210) and Head 1965 is at Museum of Modern Art at Heide (ill. Hanson, cat.209). Baldessin died in a car accident aged 39. Several memorial exhibitions were held, most notably one at the National Gallery of Victoria.

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Writers:
Staff Writer
Date written:
1996
Last updated:
2007
associate of
Imants Tillers
1950
Artist (Installation Artist), Artist (Printmaker), Artist (Mixed Media Artist), Artist (Sculptor), Artist (Painter)
associate of
Marino Marini
Non-Artist/Designer/Curator
associate of
Joyce L. McC Allen
1916
Artist (Painter), Artist (Printmaker)
associate of
Paul Partos
1943
Artist (Painter)
None
Courtesy of: Eva Breuer Art Dealer
M M and Table
Date
1977
Medium
Etching 6/25
90 x 60cm (plate size)
According to Des Esseintes
Date
1976
Personage and Entrances
Date
1974
Head
Date
1865
Collections
Bienal de Sao Paulo
1975
Exhibition (exhibited at)
Sao Paulo, Brazil
Citations:
  • (1979), (Obituary), (Place: Paddington, NSW: Art & Australia, 03-16)
  • Plant, Margaret, (1969), Baldessin's Performer, (Place: North Melbourne, Vic.: Imprint 3, p.2)
  • Palmer, Roger, (1993), George Baldessin in Retrospect: The artist his art and times, (Place: North Melbourne, Vic.: Imprint, issue 28/3, Spring, pp. 19-21)
  • McCulloch, A., (1984), Encyclopedia of Australian Art, (Place: Melbourne, Vic. 2nd edition)
  • (1969), The graphic work of George Baldessin, (Place: Paddington, NSW: Art & Australia, 02-07)
  • Lindsay, Robert & Holloway, Memory, (1983), George Baldessin: Sculpture and etchings, (Place: National Gallery of Victoria catalogue, Melbourne, Vic.)