Leonard Baskin 5 ALS collection
Date Published: 1959 to 1992
Binding: No binding
Leonard Baskin was an artist and the founder and publisher of the Gehenna Press in 1942, one of the first fine art presses in USA. Baskin's work is held by major museums worldwide. Baskin was the recipient of many awards and donors, among them were six honorary doctorates, and a member of various national and royal academies in Belgium, Italy, and U.S. The National Foundation of Jewish Culture in the U.S. presented him with its Jewish Cultural Achievement Award in Visual Arts in 2000.
Collection contains 5 Autographed Letters Signed (ALS) dating from 1959 to 1992.
Five ALS:
• 2 ALS To Richard (Dick) Sisson, an employee of the Grace Borgenicht Gallery:
- On Gehenna Press letterhead, 27 April 1959, re a sale of “the insect book” that Sisson apparently sold for $50 more than the asking price, as well as Baskin’s completion of the “Man with the Owl” wood carving which the artist says he is “loth [sic] to part with.”;
- ALS On Smith College letterhead, ? 1960, Baskin complains of Mrs. List's "capricious desire for her new bauble" "knock[ing] the genitals so to speak out of my Boston show."
• ALS to Grace Borgenicht, owner of the Grace Borgenicht Gallery, 1960 refers to Baskin's hope that Mrs. List, a potential client, will allow a sculpture to be shown in an upcoming show if she purchases the work beforehand. He instructs Grace to tell Mrs. List that "it will be a bigger Mitzvah than the A.F.A. visiting her pad." Apparently this line of reasoning did not have the desired effect.
• ALS to Gil Moody, 26 January 1987. In part: “As I never cashed the other check, why don’t you send me a $10 check. Thanks. If you write to: Kenneth Shure…he will send you a catalogue of all available Gehenna books.”
• ALS to Marvin Sadik, ? 1992, with envelope, thanking him for the appraisals (“entirely fair”), asks him to try and arrange a swap of a Henry IV medal for a papal medal.
• Envelope to Sadik, post-marked 12 July 1967.
Collection on consignment with LDRB
Very Good. Item #8889
$800.00 USD
$1,103.10 CAD