Profoundly affected by his encounters with Surrealists who were living in New York City in the 1940s, such as Matta, William Baziotes explored his imagination and incorporated automatism, or automatic drawing, and biomorphic imagery into his art practice. Part of a small group of single-image paintings, this work depicts a combination of a rhinoceros and the mythical one-eyed Cyclops. Inspired by an encounter that the artist had with his favorite animal at the zoo, the artist explained: “I had some peanuts, and as I gave them to the rhino, he sucked my hand and held it. My wife got scared but I was terribly interested. He was playful and cute and toylike, but at the same time he chilled me. He seemed prehistoric and his eyes were cold and deadly.” This work was denounced as “unintelligible” by mainstream critics, but it was awarded a prize in a juried exhibition of abstract and Surrealist American art held at the Art Institute in 1947–48.
Date
Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.
Harold Rosenberg, New Paintings, exh. pamphlet (New York: The Samuel M. Kootz Gallery, 1947), n.p.
Daniel Catton Rich, The Fifty-Eighth Annual exhibition of American Painting and Sculpture, exh. cat. (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1947), n.p.
Samuel Kootz, Recent paintings by Baziotes, exh. pamphlet (New York: The Samuel M. Kootz Gallery 1948), n.p.
Halloween Leftovers on Exhibit at Art Institute Show,” Chicago Daily News, November 5, 1947, 46 (ill.).
Frank Holland, “New York Surrealist Painter wins Art Institute $1000 Prize,” Chicago Sun Times, November 5, 1947, n.p.
“New York Artists Win Four Awards: William Baziotes Gets $1,000 Prize for Oil, ‘Cyclops,’ at Show of Chicago Art Institute” The New York Times, November 6, 1947, 24 (ill.).
Peyton Boswell Jr, “Chicago surveys the Abstract and Surrealist Art of America,” The Art Digest 22, no.4, November 15, 1947, 9 (ill.), 10.
“Small Fry Compete with Moderns,” Cue Magazine, April 17, 1948, 20 (ill.).
“Controversial Art Exhibit Opens in Beverly Tuesday,” Los Angeles Herald Express, June 11, 1948, n.p. (ill.).
“Which of These Paintings Do You Prefer?,” The Pantagraph, Jan. 28, 1950, 3 (ill.).
“Art Collection at Public Library Valued at $16,000,” The Pantagraph, Jan. 29, 1950, 2.
Jerry Sohl, “Needn’t Get Angry About Modern Art” The Pantagraph, Jan. 30, 1950, 3.
Jerry Sohl, “Some Jarring Art in Local Exhibit: Here’s a Quick Tour Among Prize Winners,” The Pantagraph, Feb. 1, 1950, 3.
Editor, The Pantagraph, “Pokes Fun at Modern Art Exhibit,” The Pantagraph, Feb. 17, 1950, 4.
Eleanor Kempner Freed and Ellen Sharp, The Magical Worlds of Redon, Klee, Baziotes: January 24, 1957-February 17, exh. cat. (Houston: Contemporary Arts Museum, 1957), n.p., n.p. (ill.).
Guggenheim, William Baziotes: A Memorial Exhibition, exh. cat. (New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1965),14, 15, 18, n.p. (ill.).
Maurice Tuchman, New York School, the First Generation: Paintings of the 1940s and 1950s, exh. cat. (Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum, 1965), not in cat.
Marlborough Gallery, William Baziotes: Late Work, 1946-1962, exh. cat. (New York: Marlborough Gallery, 1971), 11.
John Wilmereling, ed., The Genius of American Painting (New York: William Morrow & Company, 1973), 256 (color ill.).
Michael Preble, Barbara Cavaliere, and Mona Hadler, William Baziotes: A Retrospective Exhibition, exh. cat. (Newport Beach: Newport Harbor Art Museum, 1978), 45, 87 (ill.), 88, 89, 90, 92, 96, 99.
Ronald McKnight Melvin and David M. Sokol, Solitude: Inner Visions in American Art, exh. cat. (Evanston: Terra Museum of American Art, 1982), 29 (color ill.), 32.
Alicja Kepinska, “Chaos as a Value in the Mythological Background of Action Painting,” Artibus et Historiae 7, no.14 (1986), 109.
Louise S. Bross, and David S. Rubin, William Baziotes: A Commemorative Exhibition, exh. cat. (Reading, Pennsylvania: Freedman Gallery, Albright College, 1987), 9.
Judith A. Barter, Douglas W. Druick, Charles F. Stuckey, and James N. Wood, Shikago Bijutsukan ten: kindai kaiga no 100-nen = Masterworks of modern art from the Art Institute of Chicago, exh. cat. (Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1994), 180, 181 (color ill.).
Michael Preble, William Baziotes: dipinti e disegni, 1934- 1962, exh. cat. (Milano: Skira, 2004), 21 (color ill.).
Serge Guilbaut, Manuel J. Borja-Villel, and Peiró Carrasco Rosario, Be-Bomb: The Transatlantic War of Images and All That Jazz, 1946-1956, exh. cat. (Barcelona: Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, 2007), 452 (color ill.), 743.
New York, The Samuel M. Kootz Gallery, New Paintings, Apr. 7–Apr. 26, 1947, cat. 1.
Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Fifty-Eighth Annual exhibition of American Painting and Sculpture, Nov. 6, 1947–Jan. 11, 1948, cat. 10.
New York, The Samuel M. Kootz Gallery, Recent paintings by Baziotes, Feb. 16–Mar. 6, 1948, no cat. no.
New Orleans, The Isaac Delgado Museum of Art, Abstract and Surrealist American Art, Circulated by The American Federation of Arts, Dec. 15, 1948–Jan. 8, 1949, no cat.
Bloomington, IL, Russell Art Gallery, Jan. 29, 1950–Feb. 19, 1950, no cat.
Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, Two Centuries of American Art, 1750-1950, Oct. 1, 1959–Jan. 10, 1960, no cat.
Houston, Contemporary Arts Museum, The Magical Worlds of Redon, Klee and Baziotes, Jan. 24, 1957–Feb. 17, 1957, no cat. no.
Lake Forest, IL, Durand Art Institute, Lake Forest College, A Century Of American Painting: Masterpieces Loaned by The Art Institute of Chicago for the 100th Anniversary of Lake Forest College, June 10, 1957–June 16, 1957, no cat.
New York, The Guggenheim Museum, William Baziotes - A Memorial Exhibition, Feb. 4–Mar. 31, 1965, cat. 9.
Los Angeles, Lytton Gallery at Los Angeles County Museum, New York School, July 16–Aug. 1, 1965, not in cat.
New York, Marlborough Gallery, Inc., William Baziotes Exhibition, Feb. 11–Mar. 5, 1971, cat. 2.
Newport Beach, Newport Harbor Art Museum, William Baziotes: A Retrospective Exhibition, Mar. 24–June 4, 1978, cat. 7; Austin, University of Texas at Austin, June 18–Aug. 6, 1978; College Park, Maryland, University of Maryland Art Gallery, Aug. 24–Oct. 7, 1978; Ithaca, NY, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Oct. 25–Dec. 10, 1978.
Evanston, Terra Museum of American Art, Solitude-Inner Visions in American Art, Sept. 24–Dec. 30, 1982, cat. 46.
Chicago, Richard L. Feigen & Company, William Baziotes - A commemorative exhibition, Apr. 3–May 2, 1987, not in cat.; Reading, Pennsylvania, Freedman Gallery at Albright College, May 23-July 10, 1987.
Nagaoka, Niigata Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, Masterworks of Modern Art from The Art Institute of Chicago, Apr. 20, 1994–May 29, 1994, cat. 63; Nagoya, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, June 10, 1994–July 24, 1994; Yokohama, Yokohama Museum of Art, Aug. 6, 1994–Sept. 25, 1994.
New York, BlumHelman Gallery, William Baziotes - 32 years later, Jan. 18–Mar. 4, 1995, no cat. no.
Mexico City, Centro Cultural de Arte Contemporaneo, Abstract Expressionism in the United States, Oct. 10, 1996–Jan. 12, 1997, no cat.
Venice, Collezione Peggy Guggenheim, William Baziotes - Dipinti e disegni, 1934-1962, Sept. 5, 2004–Jan. 9, 2005, cat. 7.
Barcelona, Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Be-Bomb: The Transatlantic War of Images and all that Jazz in the 1950s, Oct. 5, 2007–Jan. 7, 2008, no cat. no.; Madrid, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Feb. 5–May 6, 2008.
The artist; sold through the Kootz Gallery, New York, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 27, 1947.
Unknown 10.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.
