William Baziotes

William Baziotes was a New York painter whose work dealt with the shadowy and mysterious realm of mythic subject matter and the human unconscious. Like his Abstract Expressionist peers, he was deeply committed to concerns of paint, color, and abstracted forms. But under the influence of Surrealism and other European traditions, his work took on a more lyrical and enigmatic character.

Baziotes' early career demonstrates just how large a role Surrealism played in the formation of the painters who would later be called Abstract Expressionists. One of Baziotes' early group shows was the First Papers of Surrealism exhibition in New York in 1942. Surrealism argued for a reliance on "automatic" gestures, random marks or brushstrokes that bypassed the rational intentions of the artist. In this way, deeper, psychic meanings could be expressed. The Chilean Surrealist painter Roberto Matta was a big proponent of automatic painting, incorporating drips, swirls, and other "accidents" into his abstract compositions, and he exerted a large influence on Baziotes.

This interest in the psychic and subconscious dimension also manifested itself in the odd, lyrical forms that populate Baziotes' paintings. These range from irregular geometric star and flower shapes, often with black contours in the early work, to smooth and glowing abstracted figures in the later work. To some extent these forms derive from Surrealism and other European influences - the French painter Joan Miró in particular was an inspiration. But it was also part of a distinctly Abstract Expressionist riff on such traditions. Many New York painters, including Baziotes, Adolph Gottlieb, Clyfford Still, and Mark Rothko turned to what they deemed primitive or mythological forms in an attempt to get at a more universal significance. The modern world, rife with superficial distractions and the terrors of war, Depression, and nuclear threat, offered little in the way of meaningful subject matter. Mythic tales and ideographic forms, by contrast, had been means of human expression since time immemorial. - See more at this link. 

 

William Baziotes was a New York painter whose work dealt with the shadowy and mysterious realm of mythic subject matter and the human unconscious. Like his Abstract Expressionist peers, he was deeply committed to concerns of paint, color, and abstracted forms. But under the influence of Surrealism and other European traditions, his work took on a more lyrical and enigmatic character.
- See more at: http://www.theartstory.org/artist-baziotes-william.htm#sthash.QtN2m9iC.dpuf

William Baziotes was a New York painter whose work dealt with the shadowy and mysterious realm of mythic subject matter and the human unconscious. Like his Abstract Expressionist peers, he was deeply committed to concerns of paint, color, and abstracted forms. But under the influence of Surrealism and other European traditions, his work took on a more lyrical and enigmatic character.
- See more at: http://www.theartstory.org/artist-baziotes-william.htm#sthash.QtN2m9iC.dpuf