Lot 163
Leonard Baskin (American, 1922-2000). "Moby Dick" lithograph on BFK Rives paper, 1970. Edition 68 of 200. Signed in pencil at lower right. Edition number in pencil at lower left. Also signed in plate at lower left. A wonderful lithograph of from Leonard Baskin's "Moby Dick Suite" published by New York: Kennedy Graphics and distributed graphics by Alan Wofsy Fine Arts, 1970. In this composition, Baskin features the infamous white whale that bit off Captain Ahab's leg thus inspiring Ahab's obsessive quest for revenge. Moby Dick is rendered in black and white with harpoons piercing his massive body and an open toothy mouth, against a background of graduated green hues. In Melville's story, Moby Dick sank the Pequod, line from his harpoons wound its way around Ahab's neck, and the whale pulled Ahab out the sea. Baskin, a master of dark themes, presents Moby Dick burdened by harpoons with no Ahab in sight. Size (sheet): 17" L x 23" W (43.2 cm x 58.4 cm) Size (matte): 21" L x 27" W (53.3 cm x 68.6 cm)
Leonard Baskin was a 20th century "Renaissance Man"- a highly respected sculptor, printmaker, writer, and watercolorist. His prints included mythological, classical, and biblical scenes as well as portraits and floral studies. Baskin studied at Yale University from 1941 to 1943 and received his B.A. at the New School for Social Research in 1949. He also founded Gehenna Press which specialized in fine book production and taught printmaking and sculpture at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts as well as Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts from 1953 until 1974. Baskin's artworks are in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, the Vatican Museum, the Smithsonian Institute, the Tate Gallery in London, and other elite institutions. His noted public sculptural commissions include pieces for the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial as well as the Holocaust Memorial in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Baskin also received many prestigious honors, such as a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Gold Medal of the National Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Jewish Cultural Achievement Award. He was also honored with numerous retrospective exhibitions at institutions including the Smithsonian Museum, the Albertina Museum, and the Library of Congress.
Provenance: ex-private Bishop Family Trust collection, the Trust of the late Bill Bishop, a noted antiquarian with shops in Scottsdale, Arizona and Allenspark, Colorado, USA, acquired before 2010
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#176109
- Condition: Generally excellent. Signed in pencil at lower right. Edition number in pencil at lower left. Also signed in plate at lower left. The print is float mounted to a black matte - attached on underside of upper edge.
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