B. 1939 - 1978

George Baldessin emigrated to Australian from Italy in 1949. Here, he imbued a surreal elegance into the Australian canon, which before then was largely British influenced. A charismatic and enthusiastic figure of the 1970s Melbourne art scene, he encouraged many of his peers to pursue creativity. 

Baldessin has been honoured with retrospective exhibitions at Heide Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, the Art Gallery of NSW and alongside Brett Whiteley at the National Gallery of Victoria. He is represented in all regional and many state collections, as well as New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Perhaps however, Baldessin is best known for his sumptuous brass pears, who stand guard at Canberra’s National Gallery of Australia.