SCULPTOR, printmaker and teacher George Baldessin was just 39 years old when he died in a car accident in 1978, but his influence in the Canberra art world was so significant that the ANU named the Baldessin Precinct Building after him.

Probably he is best-known for the “Pears’ sculpture outside the National Gallery of Australia but Baldessin made a mighty impact on printmaking and sculpture in Australia in the 1960s and 70s.

He represented Australia in the Sao Paulo Biennial in 1975 alongside Imams Tillers, nine years his junior, and the pair later shared a period of residency at Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. They created work in collaboration and Baldessin initiated Tillers into the techniques of etching.

Now the artist’s widow, Tess Edwards Baldessin, has made public a selection of prints, drawings and sculpture from the legacy he left behind. Initiated by the Maitland Regional Art Gallery, it’s coming to the ANU Drill Hall Gallery tonight.

Baldessin’s artistic playfulness is seen his experimental use of materials such as the fibreglass and silver foil which appear in his prints, which amalgamate smoky surfaces and scratchy line-work into his dark images.

His work has been collected by all major Australian art galleries, as well as by MOMA in New York, and the British Museum in London.

“Creative Power: The Art of George Baldessin” at the ANU  Drill Hall Gallery¸ Kingsley Street (off Barry Drive), Wednesday-Sunday, noon – 5pm,  until September 22.