LEONARD BASKIN PAINTINGS FOR SALE & BIOGRAPHY
LEONARD BASKIN
American, 1922–2000
BIOGRAPHY
“Leonard Baskin was the son of a rabbi, and his study of the Talmud during his childhood in Brooklyn later played an important role in his sculpture. He studied at Yale University from 1941 to 1943, and gained a Bachelor of Arts degree from the New School for Social Research in 1949. He travelled to Paris and Florence in 1950 and 1951. Between 1953 and 1974 he taught engraving and sculpture at Smith College (Northampton, Massachusetts). He founded the Gehenna Press. He was awarded numerous prizes and medals, including: the Gold Medal of the National Academy of Arts and Letters; the Gold Medal of the National Academy of Design; the Caldecott Prize for children's book illustration; the Guggenheim Fellowship; and the Jewish Cultural Achievement Award. He also amassed a large stamp collection.
“Sumerian sculptures and the Trecento (particularly Tino di Camaino) were decisive influences on Leonard Baskin’s transition from abstract art to figurative sculpture and his works on paper. He became interested in the history, philosophy and mythology of ancient Greece when he was very young. He regarded himself as a sculptor above all and was the first modern artist to produce monumental engravings, in the 1950s. To make his engravings he carved directly into the wood, and created plaster or clay models. He made bronze reliefs of animals or figures, standing alone, with roughly modelled surfaces. He sometimes juxtaposed men and animals in the form of figures with animal heads. He was also a writer, and illustrated numerous books, from the Bible to children's books. Leonard Baskin's output was prolific and took many forms. His public sculptures include the Holocaust Memorial statue at the Jewish cemetery in Ann Arbor (Michigan), and the Woodrow Wilson Memorial in Washington DC” (Benezit, Dictionary of Artists, Gründ, 2006).
Museum Collections:
Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
British Museum, London
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX
David Owsley Museum of Art, Muncie, IN
Block Museum of Art, Evanston, IL
Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME
Brauer Museum of Art, Valparaiso, IN
Canton Museum of Art, Canton, OH
Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, WI
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH
Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, MA
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.
Hofstra University Museum, Hempstead, NY
Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN
Huntington Library, San Marino, CA
Indiana State University Art Collection, Terra Haute, IN
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN
Jewish Museum, New York, NY
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Maier Museum of Art, Lynchburg, VA
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Mildred Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, MO
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN
Musei Vaticani, Vatican City
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Museum of Fine Arts, Longview, TX
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, WY
National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.
New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA
Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, OK
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ
Reynolds House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC
Robert V. Fullerton Art Museum, San Bernardino, CA
San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA
Smart Museum of Art, Chicago, IL
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
Southern Alleghenies Museum, Altoona, PA
Spartanburg County Museum of Art, Spartanburg, SC
Tate Gallery, London
University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, IA
University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH
Vero Beach Museum of Art, Vero Beach, FL
Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg, PA
Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, KS
Wichita State University Outdoor Sculpture Collection, Wichita, KS
