Overview
Collection Information
Size: 1 Microfilm reel, 2 volumes on partial microfilm reel1
Summary: The microfilmed William Baziotes sketchbooks consist of two hard-cover sketchbooks dating from circa 1933. One (auction no. 90.5) contains 42 single-sided drawings and 26 double-sided drawings, in both pencil and pen and ink. The second (no. 115.5) contains 71 single-sided drawings and 26 double-sided drawings, all in pencil except for one charcoal drawing on frontispiece. The sketches are primarily of people; some animals and landscapes are also included. Landscapes may be of Baziotes' hometown area of Reading, Pennsylvania, where he often returned in the summer.
Biographical/Historical Note
William Baziotes (1912-1963) was an abstract expressionist painter in New York, New York. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Baziotes moved to New York City in 1933, where he studied painting at the National Academy of Design. He participated on the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project as a teacher from 1936 to 1938, and painted for the Easel Painting Project from 1938 to 1940.
He had his first one-man show at Peggy Guggenheim's Art of This Century Gallery in 1944. The Samuel M. Kootz Gallery, Inc. held a solo show for Baziotes in 1946 and continued to exhibit his works until 1958.
Baziotes taught at Subjects of the Artist (1948); the Brooklyn Museum Art School and New York University (1949-1952); the People's Art Center at the Museum of Modern Art (1950-1952); and Hunter College (1952-1962).
Provenance
Lent for microfilming 1998 by John Castagno, a dealer who purchased the sketchbooks at auction. The auctioneer's label (Pennypacker-Andrews Auction Centre, N.Y.) affixed to each cover identifies the sketchbooks: "From the Private Collection of Constance and the Late Harry Baziotes, Purchased on September 25, 1995. Each page is stamped "Wm A. Baziotes Estate"
Related Materials
The Archives of American Art holds the William and Ethel Baziotes papers, circa 1900-1992; microfilmed Robert Motherwell postcard to William Baziotes, 1944; and William Baziotes (1912-1963): the formation of a subjectively based imagery / by Melinda Anne Lorenz, undated.
Language Note
Undetermined .
Location of Originals
- Originals returned to lender after microfilming.
