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Lot Essay
William Baziote’s The Balcony is an imaginative visual representation of Charles Baudelaire’s poem Le Balcon, in which the protagonist professes his desire for his mistress reclining in her balcony at night. “The forms in The Balcony… conjure up Baudelaire’s erotic image of his mistress of the balcony. Baziotes has described his work as having many parallel lines and flesh in it” (Arts Magazine, vol. 51. 1977, p. 103).
In his own research, Baziotes looked to poetry for inspiration in hopes of communicating strong emotions and altered states of mind. As a young adult, Baziotes showed profound interest in poetry that was encouraged even more through his close friendship with the poet Byron Vazakas. He, in fact, introduced Baziotes the poetry of Charles Baudelaire and other French Symbolist poets.
The Balcony is an outstanding composition of outlined black forms that unveils sheer areas of beautiful color modulations of yellow, greens and grays. To William Baziotes, “each painting has its own way of evolving. One may start with a few color areas on the canvas; another with a myriad of lines, another with a profusion of colors… Once I sense the suggestion, I begin to paint intuitively. The suggestion then becomes a phantom that must be caught and made real. As I work, or when the painting is finished, the subject reveals itself” (W. Baziotes, quoted in Possibilities, vol. I, no. 1, New York, 1947-1948, p. 2).
In his own research, Baziotes looked to poetry for inspiration in hopes of communicating strong emotions and altered states of mind. As a young adult, Baziotes showed profound interest in poetry that was encouraged even more through his close friendship with the poet Byron Vazakas. He, in fact, introduced Baziotes the poetry of Charles Baudelaire and other French Symbolist poets.
The Balcony is an outstanding composition of outlined black forms that unveils sheer areas of beautiful color modulations of yellow, greens and grays. To William Baziotes, “each painting has its own way of evolving. One may start with a few color areas on the canvas; another with a myriad of lines, another with a profusion of colors… Once I sense the suggestion, I begin to paint intuitively. The suggestion then becomes a phantom that must be caught and made real. As I work, or when the painting is finished, the subject reveals itself” (W. Baziotes, quoted in Possibilities, vol. I, no. 1, New York, 1947-1948, p. 2).