Barracuda
1951
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
linocut in black on wove paper
Dimensions
image: 3.81 × 13.02 cm (1 1/2 × 5 1/8 in.) sheet: 22.86 × 22.86 cm (9 × 9 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Jay Finkel
Accession Number
2013.121.43
Art Historical Context
**Barracuda** *Leonard Baskin, 1951* Linocut in black onove paper Image: 3.81 × 13.02 cm (1 1/2 × 5 1/8 in.); Sheet: 22.86 × 22.86 cm (9 × 9 in.) National Gallery of Art, Washington Gift of Jay Finkel Leonard Baskin's *Barracuda* (1951) captures the sleek menace of the predatory fish through a striking linocut, a relief printing technique where the artist carves away linoleum to leave bold, raised lines inked in deep black. This modest-sized image on a square wove paper sheet exemplifies Baskin's mastery of printmaking during the post-World War II era, when he emerged as a leading A...
About the Artist
Leonard Baskin
Leonard Baskin (1922–2000) was a towering figure in American art, renowned for his monumental sculptures, powerful woodcuts, and intricate book illustrations that grappled with the human condition's darker facets. Born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, to a family of rabbis, he moved to Brooklyn's Jewish Orthodox Williamsburg neighborhood at age seven. Vowing to become a sculptor at 15, Baskin apprent...