Description:
self-portrait
Label Text:
The self-portrait was a major element in Baskin’s oeuvre, serving as a means of introspection and self-analysis. The Hebrew inscription on this painting reads “Yom Kippur” and gives the artist’s full name: Yehuda Leib Baskin. He would often celebrate this Day of Atonement by painting a self-portrait. “AET S” at the bottom is the Latin abbreviation for “aetatis suae” (at the age of), and refers to the artist’s age when he made the painting, 70.
While abstraction was considered the progressive artistic form after World War II, Baskin rejected it in favor of a figurative mode. He was concerned with the human condition and the consciousness of humankind, which is reflected in his self-portraits.
From the 1950s on, Baskin taught printmaking and sculpture at Smith and Hampshire Colleges.
BJ, 2014
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+2012.319 |
