Biography:
Leonard Baskin (1922 - 2000), the son of a rabbi, was a multi-disciplinary artist who worked in several mediums. Born in 1922, he was perhaps best known for his bas reliefs and witty illustrations. His bas relief of FDR's funeral cortege is on the new FDR memorial in Washington. He created satirical books on extinct creatures that never existed and Jewish artists of the Renaissance.
History and accomplishments:
Born in 1922, Baskin was an accomplished sculptor, book illustrator, printmaker, graphic artist, writer and teacher. His most prominent public commissions include a bas relief for the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial and a bronze statue of a seated figure, erected in 1994 for the Holocaust Memorial in Ann Arbor, MI. His works are displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the British Museum, the Honolulu Academy of Arts and the Vatican Museums.
From 1953 until 1974, he taught printmaking and sculpture at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. While he was a student at Yale University, he founded Gehenna Press, a small private press specializing in fine book production. He lived most of his life in the U.S., but spent nine years in Devon at Lurley Manor, Lurley, near Tiverton, close to his friend Ted Hughes -- for whom he illustrated Crow. He died on June 3, 2000 at the age of 77.
Awards:
- Guggenheim Fellowship
- Gold Medal of the National Academy of Arts and Letters
- Special Medal of Merit of the American Institute of Graphic Arts
- Gold Medal of the National Academy of Design
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