ABOUT THE WORK

Dierdre is a woodcut print produced in 1964 by American artist Leonard Baskin. This work epitomizes the prints Baskin became famous for, oversized, black and white woodcuts depicting a single figure in states of pensiveness and angst. The subject in this woodcut is likely Dierdre, an ill-fated heroine of Irish mythology whose story aligns with the artist's preference for macabre literary subjects. Baskin created these woodcuts by carving images into woodblocks, applying ink to the surface of the engraving, and carefully pressing the paper with a roller. Along with artist Carol Summers, Baskin was among the first to carve and press prints on wooden blocks significantly larger than those used in traditional Japanese woodcut production. This process pioneered the creation of "monumental woodcuts" and enabled the emotions of Baskin's subjects to emit further impact. This work was printed and published in 1964 by Gehenna Press in Northampton, Massachusetts, a renowned printmaker founded by the artist.

This work has undergone treatment by an IAC specialist to restore the depth and brightness of the black and white ink, as well as the translucence of the rice paper. Please contact the gallery for more information.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Leonard Baskin (1922-2000) was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and raised in Brooklyn, New York. At fourteen, Baskin watched a clay modeling demonstration at a department store and immediately decided to become a sculptor. Only four years later, he would exhibit his first collection of pieces at New York's Glickman Gallery. Baskin then began his art studies at New York University and later Yale University before leaving to join the Navy during WWII. He finished his degree at New York's New School in 1949 before moving abroad to study in Paris and Florence, where he discovered the methods and traditions of the Renaissance. Baskin then moved to Massachusetts, where he taught at Smith College and began producing woodcuts, publishing them at the esteemed printmaker Gehenna Press, which he founded in 1951. Shortly afterward, Baskin received a Guggenheim Fellowship and exhibited at the Venice Biennale.

Baskin, the son of an orthodox rabbi, attended a Yeshiva high school, which profoundly impacted his later work, infusing his aesthetic with mythological, historical, and Old Testament imagery. This religious background also led Baskin to view humans as the center of the universe and the human figure as the preeminent subject. He nevertheless held a grim view of the world, often depicting themes of mortality and his subjects with earnest, fanciful, and, at times, grotesque expressions. Baskin's engravings almost exclusively depicted human figures in solid black ink against white backgrounds, though he would produce color engravings during the end of his career. Nevertheless, while his early prints gained critical praise, Baskin considered himself a sculptor, preferring to work with bronze, limestone, and wood, albeit conveying the same subjects prevalent in his woodcuts. Due to Baskin's reverence for tradition and commitment to figurative subjects, his body of work differed recognizably from what was produced by the abstract expressionists of the time, and this distinction accounted for the artist's extensive collector base.

In 1974, Baskin moved to England to be closer to Ted Hughes, a poet and friend whose works inspired his woodcuts and with whom he would have a lifelong collaboration. Baskin returned to Massachusetts in 1983, teaching at Hampshire College while completing commissions for the Holocaust Museum in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and the Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, DC. He participated in over forty exhibitions and received six honorary degrees throughout his career. At the same time, his Gehenna Press published his extensive series of woodcuts and over one hundred books, including those of James Baldwin and Anthony Hecht. Today, Baskin's work occupies numerous permanent collections, such as the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC, the MOMA in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.