William Baziotes

The Room

1945

William Baziotes and other members of the New York School were influenced by the European Surrealists who had fled to the United States during World War II. Like the Surrealists, Baziotes used objects in his environment as triggers for the memory of early sensations or as conduits to the unconscious. Baziotes makes allusions in his paintings to the external world of objects, but these remain elusive and changeable. He usually added his titles after the compositions had emerged through intuitive decisions. Although the titles do not identify subject matter, they nevertheless guide interpretation. Thus, the title of the present work may encourage one to experience the mood of an interior space illuminated by diffused twilight. An atmosphere of nostalgic reverie is evoked by scumbled, weathered layers of gouache in which pastel colors predominate. Unlike Baziotes’s most characteristic works, in which biomorphic shapes float freely on an indefinite background, The Room is constructed architectonically.

On view

Artist William Baziotes
Date 1945
Medium Gouache on board
Dimensions 45.6 x 61 cm
Credit line Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice (Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York)
Accession 76.2553 PG 156
Collection Peggy Guggenheim Collection
Type Painting

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On view


Other artworks

Tancredi Parmeggiani

Untitled

1951–52

Not on View