Leonard Baskin Works on Paper at Portland Art Museum

Friday, 22 June 2007 06:32

Portland, OR - An internationally acclaimed sculptor, printmaker, painter, calligrapher, essayist, book designer, and poet, Leonard Baskin (American, 1922-2000) was a major figure in 20th-century American art. In the 1940s and 1950s when movements such as abstract expressionism all but eliminated the human form in painting and sculpture, Baskin championed it. Through figuration, his overarching concern was to express the power and depth of the human condition at its most primal. This exhibition of some 50 prints, drawings, and artist books, selected chiefly from the Museum’s holdings and northwest private collections, highlights images of humanity as a central theme in Baskin’s works on paper. Graphic Force, Humanist Vision reveals both the brilliance of his skill and the immediate poignancy of Baskin’s artistic legacy: the common consciousness of humankind. On exhibition August 18 – November 11, 2007.

Pleading Warrior Born in New Brunswick , New Jersey , in 1922, Baskin grew up in Brooklyn under the strict tutelage of his rabbi father, which gave him a rich classical education. After studying with sculptor Maurice Glickman, and attending several universities, Baskin taught himself the art of printmaking at Yale University , which he attended on a scholarship. There, in 1942, he founded the Gehenna Press, a private fine art press that published more than 100 handcrafted artist books and portfolios during his lifetime.

Primarily known as a sculptor, Baskin rapidly gained international recognition as a printmaker and book designer. A heroic series of monumental woodcuts in the 1950s, which includes the Museum’s Man of Peace (1952) and the chilling Hydrogen Man (1954) included in the exhibition, brought him controversy and notoriety as a biting social critic and brilliant woodcut artist.

Marnie P. Stark, Assistant Curator of Prints and Drawings and curator for the exhibition, noted, “In an age where the image of man is often a glossed semblance for popular consumption, Baskin’s work sings the flesh back on to the bones of our humanity through an artistic vision of wrenching honesty and tremendous power.”

The late Dr. Francis J. Newton, who as executive director and curator, organized a series of Baskin exhibitions in 1963 and 1964 at the Portland Art Museum. He gifted the majority of the Museum’s Baskin holdings.

About the Portland Art Museum

The seventh oldest museum in the United States , and the oldest on the West Coast, the Portland Art Museum is internationally recognized for its permanent collection and ambitious special exhibitions drawn from the Museum’s holdings and the world’s finest public and private collections. The Museum’s collection of 40,000 objects, displayed in 112,000 square feet of galleries, reflects the history of art from ancient times to today. The collection is distinguished for its holdings of arts of the native peoples of North America, English silver, and the graphic arts. An active collecting institution, dedicated to preserving great art for the enrichment of future generations, the Museum dedicates 90 percent of its galleries to its permanent collection. The Museum’s campus of landmark buildings, a cornerstone of Portland ’s cultural district, includes the Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art, the Gilkey Center for Graphic Arts, the Schnitzer Center for Northwest Art, the Northwest Film Center , and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Center for Native American Art. With a membership of 22,000 households and serving more than 350,000 visitors annually, the Museum is a premier venue for education in the visual arts. For information on exhibitions and programs, call 503.226.2811 or visit portlandartmuseum.org.

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