William Baziotes (1912-1963) Abstract Expressionist

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William Baziotes (1912-1963) Figure Drawing - Charcoal on paperRemovable archival hinges hold paper to foam core.18" x 23" sheet size23" x 28" Matted - contained in a removable heavy plastic sleeve Stamped with estate stampProvenanceThese drawings came out of the Constance and Harry Baziotes (His brother) estate and were sold at auction in 1995 by Pennypacker auctions in Reading PA.(See photos for related material that is mounted on the back of the foam core that is the backing for the drawing.In turn purchased from the present owner.This is a very rare and important drawing by one of the most celebrated American artists of the Abstract Expressionist Movement.William Baziotes (1912-1963)William Baziotes was born June 11, 1912, in Pittsburgh, to parents of Greek origin. He grew up in Reading, Pennsylvania, w he worked at the Case Glass company from 1931 to 1933, antiquing glass and running errands. At this time, he took evening sketch classes and met the poet Byron Vazakas, who became his lifelong friend. Vazakas introduced Baziotes to the work of Charles Baudelaire and the Symbolist poets. In 1931, Baziotes saw the Henri Matisse exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and in 1933 he moved to that city to study painting. From 1933 to 1936, Baziotes attended the National Academy of Design, w he studied with Charles Curran, Ivan Olinsky, Gifford Beal, and Leon Kroll. After three years at the Academy, Baziotes started painting realistic landscapes and still lifes. While employed by the WPA Art Project in the late 1930s, he began to execute works in a more stylized manner and showed diminishing interest in rendering subjects with anatomical verity.The 1940s brought close relationships with many artists in the emerging Abstract Expressionist group. Although Baziotes shared their interest in primitive art and automatism, his work consistently displayed stronger affinities with European surrealism. Baziotes met Chilean-born Surrealist Roberto Matta in May 1940, the same year he exhibited with the Surrealists in a group show organized for the New School. By 1941, Baziotes was actively experimenting with abstraction and Matta introduced him to Robert Motherwell. The following year Baziotes exhibited in the “First Papers of Surrealism” exhibition, along with artists including Motherwell and David Hare. Baziotes was honored with his first one-man show in New York in 1944 at Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of This Century Gallery. His next solo showing was in 1946 at the Kootz Gallery, which represented Baziotes through 1958. In 1962, he was one of the celebrated artists included in Sydney Janis’ important exhibition, Ten American Painters.Baziotes, who was of Greek descent, often used the forms that appeared in the ancient sculpture he owned, and during the 1950s he studied Greek sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Baziotes drew visual inspiration from a wide range of sources, including the rich colors of Persian miniatures and even the grotesque variations seen in specimens from the natural sciences. In the latter part of his career, Baziotes taught extensively. He became a founding member of the school on Eighth Street in 1948 and in the years that followed, he taught at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, People’s Art Center, the Museum of Modern Art, and Hunter College in New York.Baziotes and his wife Ethel lived in the Morningside Heights area of northern Manhattan until his death from cancer in 1963, aged 50.Some of his famous works are Aquatic, Dusk, and The Room, all of which are in the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Other famous works by Baziotes can be seen at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the MoMA, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.William Baziotes work is in the following collectionsAddison Gallery of American Art Allen Memorial Art Museum Arizona State University Art Museum Art Institute of Chicago Bir... read more

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