Baziotes was born in Pittsburgh, raised in Reading, and later moved to New York, where he embraced Abstract Expressionism and became part of the circle of cutting edge artists that included Jackson Pollock and Robert Motherwell exhibiting at Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of This Century gallery. This work likely dates from the 1950s, when the artist was exploring abstracted themes related to the sea. Although subtle, one can detect the white sails of a boat and the quiet rhythms of emerald green waters. Referring to his marine subjects, his wife Ethel recalled one of her husband’s favorite sayings, “My work is like the Caribbean Sea - beautiful, serene, and exotic on the surface. And all the time below are the sharks.”
