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Figure on a Tightrope

1947
Not on view
Baziotes embraced the Symbolist concept of "correspondences"—poetic analogies in which a single form can suggest multiple references. Also influenced by Pablo Picasso’s and Joan Miró’s Surrealist works, Baziotes painted semiabstract images with legible though ambiguous forms, like those in Figure on a Tightrope. In 1947, the year he made this painting, Baziotes explained his process, "Each beginning suggests something. Once I sense the suggestion, I begin to paint intuitively. The [intuitive] suggestion then becomes a phantom that must be caught and made real."

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Figure on a Tightrope
  • Artist: William Baziotes (American, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 1912–1963 New York)
  • Date: 1947
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 36 × 42 in. (91.4 × 106.7 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Louis R. Wasserman, 1977
  • Object Number: 1977.471
  • Rights and Reproduction: © Estate of William Baziotes
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

More Artwork

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Florida Seascape (recto); Untitled (verso), William Baziotes American, Opaque watercolor, watercolor, and black ink on paper
Florida Seascape (recto); Untitled (verso)
William Baziotes
1945
Ethel Baziotes (recto); Untitled (Clown and Female Nude) (verso), William Baziotes American, Oil on canvas
Ethel Baziotes (recto); Untitled (Clown and Female Nude) (verso)
William Baziotes
ca. 1940
The Flesh Eaters, William Baziotes American, Oil and charcoal on canvas
The Flesh Eaters
William Baziotes
1952
Cobra, William Baziotes American, Watercolor and graphite on paper
Cobra
William Baziotes
1957
Untitled, William Baziotes American, Watercolor, opaque watercolor, and black ink on board
Untitled
William Baziotes
ca. 1942

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