Invitation to Art; Leonard Baskin

WGBH Educational Foundation · 1962

Leonard Baskin, another controversial and exciting modern artists, is interviewed on this program. He is a man of strong opinions, and his dogmatic approach to art and philosophy may irritate some viewers, but his remarks are highly useful to an understanding of the modern art movement. Through comment, conversation, and the showing of several of Baskin's works, Dr. O'Doherty evokes these strong opinions from the artist. Among other ideas expressed by Baskin is the thought that we live today in a ghastly world, one in which the nature and value of the human individual is under tremendous pressure. Baskin explains that his art is an attempt to support the worth and nobility of the human being against the conflicts of age. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche) This series explores man and the world around him through the eyes of artists, past and present, and aims to develop an understanding of art as a direct expression of universal emotions. As the host, Dr. Brian O'Doherty, young Irish poet, painter, and art critic, brings a fresh, witty and warmly human point of view to the visual arts. In the first season (episodes 1 - 15), O'Doherty follows, through these arts, the cycle of man from childhood to old age and explores the society in which man lives in all its aspects - tragic, comic, and mundane. Dr. O'Doherty uses works of art now on display in the galleries of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, to illustrate the episodes. Patricia Barnard of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts supervises production. Her assistant is Thalia Kennedy of the Museum staff. In the second season (episodes 16 - 30), each episode either examines in detail the work and thought of one of the great artists of the past, or consists of skillful and sympathetic interviews by Dr. O'Doherty of distinguished living artists who have had a powerful influence upon the art of today. In the third season (episode 31 - 34), Dr. O'Doherty interviews a distinguished American artist who have had a powerful influence upon the art of today. In the fourth season (episodes 35 - 41), a pattern of ideas evolves, revealing the various roles of the artist. This series was originally record in black and white on kinescope. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)