LEONARD BASKIN was a carver, painter, illustrator and printmaker. His work often focused on the grotesque in both life and death. Subjects included nature and peeled human forms. He revolted against the age of abstraction. Poet Ted Hughes said about Baskin, “He abhors anything that strikes him as an evasion of the real.”
Baskin revived the art of fine book making with the founding of Gehenna Press at the age of twenty, in response to his hatred of the art school, instructors, and work at Yale. The work of dramatist and artist William Blake served as inspiration, and Baskin taught himself the art of printmaking.
Baskin was known for representing man in an abstract, almost mythological style. Inspiration came from the Bible and the literature of Ancient Greece. Baskin became a master of woodcuts and etchings, and was profoundly influenced by German expressionism. His public commissions include sculptures for the Roosevelt Memorial, and the Holocaust Museum in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Baskin founded Gehenna Press in 1942, an early and important fine art press in the United States.
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BISHOP’S opened for Final Fridays in Lawrence, KS on February 28, 2020 with a show of several of our Baskin prints, watercolors, and original woodcuts. The show remains up, so if you missed the opening, feel free to contact us and make an appointment to view the Baskins. Below you will find a gallery of the images we have on display, along with many more that are currently in our inventory.
