Baskin, Leonard

Baskin, Leonard (1922–2000). American sculptor, printmaker, draughtsman, and book designer, born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the son of a rabbi. He had a long and varied training, studying first with the sculptor Maurice Glickman, 1937–9, then at the universities of New York, 1939–41, and Yale, 1941–3. After serving in the US Navy during the Second World War, he continued his studies at the New School for Social Research in New York, graduating in 1949, then at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, 1950, and the Academy in Florence, 1951. On his return to the USA he began teaching at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1953. Baskin said that ‘man and his condition have been the totality of my concern', and his belief that art should express moral and social concerns was at odds with the prevailing abstraction of the 1950s. His most characteristic sculptures are brooding, full-length, standing figures (in bronze, stone, or wood) portraying ‘anxiety-ridden man imprisoned in his ungainly self’ (Man with a Dead Bird, MOMA, New York, 1951–6). They have a kinship with the graphic art of Barlach and Kollwitz—the two modern artists Baskin admired most. Baskin himself was a prolific printmaker, especially of woodcuts, many of which were used as book illustrations. His interest in books encompassed the whole of their design, including typography and binding, and in 1952 he founded the Gehenna Press to produce limited editions. He won numerous awards for his work, including the printmaking prize at the 1961 São Paulo Bienal.