Red Landscape 1957

William Baziotes made this painting, called Red Landscape, with oil on canvas. I'm getting a sense of these floating organic forms, like they're suspended in the air. The muted palette gives a dreamy feel, with this tension between the soft shapes and more defined lines. I imagine Baziotes, brush in hand, coaxing these figures into being. Maybe he started with the overall wash of color, then let the shapes emerge intuitively from there. Look at that amoeba-like shape at the top, hovering like a thought. Then there's the spindly figure on the right; is it dancing or just trying to find its footing? Baziotes was part of the abstract expressionist scene, hanging out with the likes of Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. But he had his own thing going on. Like, he’s clearly pulling from his subconscious, riffing on the biomorphic forms of Miró and Arp, but making it his own. It makes me think about how we are all in constant conversation with each other. And that’s the beauty of painting, isn’t it? It’s an ongoing dialogue across time, with each artist adding their voice to the mix.