Lot 182
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Leonard Baskin (American, 1922-2000). "Oracular Sibyl" color etching and aquatint on paper, 1978. Edition 106 of 125. Artist signature and date in lower left of image. Edition and artist signature in pencil below image. A striking color etching by Leonard Baskin titled "Oracular Sibyl" and depicting a bald head facing right with an mouth open as though mid-speech, beneath a sizable bird superimposed in lime green ink. Baskin's interest in Greek history, philosophy, and mythology led him to include the sibyl, the prophetic female from Greek mythology, in many of his sculptures and paintings. In 1980, Ruth Fainlight published a sequence of poems entitled "Twelve Sibyls" accompanied by Baskin's woodcuts - this example likely among them. One poem that is particularly evocative of this etching concludes: "I am no more conscious of the prophecies / than I can understand the language of birds /
let the simple folk praise you, / keep you safe as a caged bird, / and call you a sibyl." Size of image: 14.5" W x 19.5" H (36.8 cm x 49.5 cm) Size: 25.75" W x 33.25" H (65.4 cm x 84.5 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.
"Oracular Sibyl" has been collected by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. (2013.121.131), the British Museum (2004,1031.20), Grinnell College Museum of Art (1982.002.BK), and Weatherspoon Art Museum (1979.2636).
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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#174733
- Condition: Artist signature and date in lower left of image. Edition and artist signature in pencil below image. Set in custom matte and frame with suspension wire on verso for display. Some minor nicks to periphery of frame that do not affect image. Etching has not been examined outside of frame but appears to be in overall excellent condition.
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