Baziotes, William (1912–63). Painter
An early *abstract expressionist, he created subtly hued, mysterious worlds. Like sea creatures or microscopic life, *biomorphic forms drift across his canvases, suggesting the variety, lyricism, and ineffability of nature and the psychic responses it provokes. Rooted in surrealism, his mature style offers a tranquil alternative to the excited brushwork and tormented tone associated with much abstract expressionism. Still, disquieting undercurrents suggest his longstanding interest in French symbolist poetry, with its romantic attraction to evil and depravity as well as to exaltation and transcendence. Classical myth, too, drew his interest as a source of access to the universal human themes that he, like so many of his abstract expressionist colleagues, found also in the arts of tribal peoples.... ...
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