Homage à Leonard Baskin

Eric enjoyed a long and close friendship with sculptor, printmaker, and graphic artist Leonard Baskin (1922–2000). Both were internationally recognized and lived in the same Western Massachusetts community of Northampton, where their mutual admiration was grounded in a shared devotion to printmaking and calligraphy.

In Homage à Leonard Baskin, Eric depicts a broad-shouldered figure in a palette of saturated reds, accented with tonal variations. There are at least two other works in this series, each adopting a different monochromatic scheme. This monumental figure, which, like many of Eric’s figurative works stands on a horizontal plane that resembles a plinth, recalls the exaggeration of physical form in Baskin’s own abstract, figurative practice, in which birds often appear elongated, extenuated, and rendered with heroic gravitas.