Leonard Baskin
Portrait
c.1970

Name: Portrait
Brand: Leonard Baskin
Price: 900 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

This artwork "Portrait" c.1970 is an original etching on Arches paper by noted American artist Leonard Baskin, 1922-2000. It is signed and numbered 92/100 in pencil by the artist. The plate mark size is 17.75 x 17.65 inches, sheet size is 29.75 x 22 inches. It is in very good condition, the edge of the sheet is slightly toned, see picture #5 for detail. About the artist. A highly respected draftsman, print maker, teacher, and sculptor, Leonard Baskin had the ability to depict in an abstract style man and his relation to the world. Whether working with bronze or wood or two-dimensional mediums, his focus remained on large heroic, but flawed human beings who at times recall photographic images of concentration-camp victims or birds with human bodies that suggest mythological forms. Born in 1922 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, Baskin studied sculpture with Maurice Glickman at the Educational Alliance, New York City, from 1937 to 1943. He had many influences at that time including Ossip Zadkine, Henri Laurens, and Alexander Archipenko. In 1949, he began to make wood engravings, and his attitude toward the nature of man grew more generalized, but no less moralistic or didactic. In style these works are closest to German Die Brucke prints. For many years, he was a professor of sculpture at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. Baskin was particularly noted for his memorials, including the Holocaust Memorial (dedicated 1994) in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which features a 7-foot (2.1-metre) figure, seated and in anguish with a hand raised above the head. In his woodcuts Baskin developed a distinctively wiry and nervous linearity. Man of Peace (1952) and Everyman (1960) are among his best-known woodcuts.Among his numerous honours, Baskin was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1963, and in 1969 he received that academy’s Gold Medal. He also was awarded the Sculpture (1988) and Gold (1989) medals of the National Academy of Design. In addition, Hosie’s Alphabet (1972), which he illustrated and cowrote, was named a Cal Baskin’s sculpture, watercolors, and prints are in the permanent collections of most of the world’s major art galleries and museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, the Vatican Museum, the Smithsonian Institute and the Tate Gallery in London. He died June 3, 2000 in Northampton, Massachusetts,

Creator:

Leonard Baskin (1922-2000, American)

Creation Year:

c.1970

Dimensions:

Height: 29.75 in (75.57 cm)Width: 22 in (55.88 cm)Depth: 0.01 in (0.26 mm)

Medium:

Etching

Movement & Style:

American Modern

Period:

Late 20th Century