BASKIN, LEONARD

born Aug. 15, 1922, New Brunswick, N.J., U.S. American sculptor and printmaker noted for his bleak but impressive portrayals of the human figure. After studying in the United States and Europe, Baskin had his first one-man show in New York City in 1939. From 1953 to 1974 he taught at Smith College in Northampton, Mass. Baskin designed monumental figures in bronze, limestone, wood, and relief. Among his subjects are poets (Blake, 1955; Barlach Dead, 1959), universal symbols (Hanged Man, 1956; Man with Owl, 1960), and biblical subjects (Prodigal Son, 1976; Ruth and Naomi, 1978). Baskin imbued his sculptures of the human figure with those qualities of spiritual death, decay, and vulnerability which to him were the condition of 20th-century man. His sculptures nevertheless possess a kind of forbidding authority. In his woodcuts he developed a distinctively wiry and nervous linearity. Man of Peace and Everyman are among his best-known woodcuts. He used some of his woodcuts to illustrate books printed by the Gehenna Press, which he owned.