Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1962-03-25
ART AND ARTISTS
Agony and Terror Are Themes
Of leonard Boskin at !. ia.
BY FRANK GETLEIN
Star Art Critic

Star Art Critic
II will show you fear in a
handful of DUST" said the
poet, and Leonard Baskin
could echo the statement.
This leading American print
maker has a large exhibition
at the liza. Gallery and you
owe it to your humanity to
see the prints. Leonard Bas-
kin concentrates on the
handful of dust that we all
are and he finds the dust
usually in the grip of agony
or terror. We easily forget,
most of us these days, that
) agony and terror loom large
in the normal condition of
mankind. These prints re-
mind us.
Leonard Baskin is a sculp-
tor as well as a printman
and it is hard to say which
Is primary, for both come out
of the same artistic technique,
the cutting of wood. In his
sculpture he has, in fact,
done a great deal of cast
bronze; in his prints he has
, done some sensitive etchings.
But to the eye familiar with
his work, both etching and
bronze seem expressions in
new media of a vision of
man that was definitively
shaped. in part, by the act
of cutting into wood with
knives.
1t is this quality of cutting
that has given prints much
of their distinctive value,
even their distinctive point
of view, through the CEN
turtles. Compare the physi-
cally easy process of manipu-
lating oil paint with the
physically hard process of
cutting an image in hard
wood and you readily see why
the print, from the time of
Durer, has carried more than
its share Of agony and ter
ror, and why oil painting,
, from the time of Titan, has
more often celebrated mans
happiness and peace.
Master Technician
AS much as anyone in
print history, Leonard Baskin
has realized the connection
between the cutting edge and
the prints image of pain and
fear. At a time when print
activity has lowered forth
into gorgeous color, intricate
textures and a wide variety
Of experimental means, this
artist freely admits he uses
no technical device that
wasn't already perfected in
the 18th century. Most of his
work is in black and white
and gets much of its power
from that limitation.
"Everyman" illustrates the
power. The arms, stretched
out, are cut off just below
the shoulder, the feet at the
ankles. The print is enor-
NOUS, just over 7 feet high,
one of a series the artist has
done in such large size. So
we are Immediately con-
fronted with this mutilated
body, larger than life, in
escapable. The head thrown
back, the arms stretched out,
both suggest the crucifixion.
But the legs are straight and
standing despite the loss of
the feet. The man is alive
and standing on the earth,
yet is crucified every moment.
Use of Blackness
The artist has also re-
,versed his values. Wood cuts
or engravings,. like drawings,
are normally black line i'm
ages on white paper. Here the
whole area surrounding the
figure is left black; the fig
ure has been carved out of
an immense stretch of black
ness as of a Starless night.
The blackness also presses in
upon the figure, like the
walls of a narrow grave.
Within those walls, regard
the figure. The outline is not
that of Vitruvian Man, nor
even of Vic Tanney Man.
Skinny legs support a swol-
hen belly and Me rernernhar.