Object number1955.6.3
Night Mirror
Date1947
Artist
William Baziotes
(American, 1912-1963)
CultureAmerican
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 48 7/16 x 59 13/16 in. (123 x 152 cm)
Framed: 52 11/16 x 62 3/4 x 1 5/8 in. (133.8 x 159.4 x 4.1 cm)
Framed: 52 11/16 x 62 3/4 x 1 5/8 in. (133.8 x 159.4 x 4.1 cm)
Credit LineGift of Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd (Blanchette Hooker, class of 1931)
Period20th c
Classification(s)
SignedOn recto, signed lower right: Baziotes
On verso, titled, signed, and dated upper left: Night Mirror, William Baziotes, 1947
BibliographyRosenberg, Harold. Baziotes. New York, NY: Kootz Gallery, 1947;
Museum of Modern Art. 15 Americans. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1952, p. 12;
Alloway, Lawrenca. William Baziotes: A Memorial Exhibition. New York, NY: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1965, cat. 5, repr;
Henning, Edward B. The Spirit of Surrealism / Edward B. Henning. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1979, cat. 98, p. 161;
Hobbs, Robert Carleton, and Gail Levin. Abstract Expressionism, the Formative Years / by Robert Carleton Hobbs and Gail Levin. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1981, p. 59;
Polcari, Stephen. Abstract Expressionism and the Modern Experience. Cambridge University Press, 1991, p. 213-232;
Preble, Michael. William Baziotes : Paintings and Drawings, 1934-1962 / Edited by Michael Preble. Milan: Skira, 2005, cat. 23, p. 21;
Nobuyuki, Okabe. Paris--New York; Modern Paintings in 19th and 20th Century Master Works from the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College. Japan: Yamagata Museum of Art, 2008, p. 108, cat. 52;
Matthew Gale, "Miró and The United States," ed. Matthew Gale (Barcelona: Fundació Joan Miró, 2025), p. 145ProvenanceArtist,Sam M. Kootz Gallery, New York, 1947;
Sold to Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd (Blanchette Hooker), 1954;
Gifted to the Vassar College Art Gallery, 1955
Vassar Exhibitions
Exhibition HistoryWilliam Baziotes, Kootz Gallery, New York, NY, April 7 - April 26, 1947;15 Americans, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, April 9 - July 27, 1952;
William Baziotes: A Memorial Exhibition, Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, February 11 - December, 1966 (toured America?);
Vassar Exchange Exhibition, Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany, NY, November 5 - December 9, 1968;
Abstract Expressionism: The Formative Years, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, March 30 - May 14, 1978; Seibu Museum of American Art, Tokyo, Japan, June 17 - July 12, 1978; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, October 5 - December 3, 1978;
The Spirit of Surrealism, Cleveland Museum of Art, October 3 - November 25, 1979;
Dorothy Miller: With an Eye to American Art, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA, April 19 - June 16, 1985;
Equitable Art Gallery, New York, NY, November 17, 1999 - February 19, 2000; Historisches Museum der Stadt Vien, Vienna, Austria, March 22 - June 25, 2000;
Dreamworks: Twentieth Century Artistic and Psychological Perspectives, Binghamton University Art Museum, Binghamton, NY, July 28 - September 22, 2000;
USLA at the Armand Hammer Museum of Art,Los Angeles, CA, October 25, 2000 - January 14, 2001;
William Baziotes: Metamorphosis, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy, September 3, 2004 - January 9, 2005;
Paris--New York; Modern Paintings in 19th and 20th Century Masterworks from the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York, Shimane Art Museum, Matsue, Japan, March 7 - May 11, 2008; Ishibashi Museum of Art, Kurume, Japan, May 17 - July 20, 2008; Yamagata Museum of Art, Yamagata, Japan, July 30 - August 31, 2008; Fuchu Art Museum, Fuchu, Japan, September 6 - November 3, 2008; Miyazaki Prefectural Art Museum, Miyazaki, Japan, November 14 - December 14, 2008;
A Taste for the Modern: Gifts from Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller, Edna Bryner Schwab, and Virginia Herrick Deknatel, Poughkeepsie, NY, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, June 24 - September 4, 2011;
Miró and the United States, Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain, October 10, 2025 - February 22, 2026; The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, March 21, 2026 - July 5, 2026
DescriptionThree large abstracted blue, pink, and purple forms against a mottled blue, green, and black background. The leftmost form is largely horizonal, narrow, and less curved than the other forms, with its interior comprised of a zigzag pattern. The centermost form is mostly circular and nucleus-like, with two forms stacked atop one another and narrowly connected at their middle. It is a blue form with pinkish-blue circular forms running parallel to one another. The rightmost form is mostly pink and though it is narrow and largely horizontal, it has more erratic curvature throughout than the other two forms.
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