Man of Peace

Leonard Baskin
Woodblock print
1952
Gift of Mr. & Mrs. Peter Blum
66.2461

Born in New Jersey, Baskin was raised in Brooklyn, New York. The son of a rabbi, he was educated at a Jewish religious college which had a profound effect on his aesthetic. He studied in New York and at the Yale School of Fine Arts. Starting out as a sculptor, he turned to printmaking after pursuing additional study in Paris and Florence during the early 1950s. Large and innovative woodcuts such as Man of Peace cemented Baskin’s reputation as a printmaker. Angular and expressionistic the imagery of barbed wire and the scarred, half-clothed figure is evocative of the Holocaust. Holding a dead bird, perhaps a dove of peace, the figure is hopeful, yet hopeless, reflecting Baskin’s central message of human striving against futility and despair.