Wal

From conceptual art to the storytelling of “comics,” from adherence to the New-New movement to the evolution of the “toy-image,” the research journey of a postmodern artist.

Walter Guidobaldi, known as Wal, began his formal training at the Istituto d’Arte in Reggio Emilia, not far from the village of Roncolo di Quattro Castella, where he was born in 1949. These were years of studying subjects and techniques such as life drawing and, above all, carving, marquetry, and cabinetmaking, which would later prove invaluable in developing the manual skills that characterize his mature sculptures. This craftsmanship, in 1968-69, was instead expressed through brushes and tubes of oil paint, gaining early and unexpected recognition in the local art market, thanks to the support of a newly established gallery in Reggio, La Scaletta, which had opened its doors in 1967 on Via Roma.