Capriccio
Capriccio was one of the artist’s favorite book projects. Completed in 1990, Capriccio represented for Baskin the ultimate collaboration between artist and poet, image and text. He felt that his own imagery complemented Hughes’s poetry harmoniously to create a finely balanced and compelling union.
The Capriccio edition is profusely illustrated with woodcuts and etchings of various sizes, and printed in an enormous format. Here, a study, proof and final state demonstrate the evolution of the work’s title page. Its combination of typography and image is rarely found elsewhere in Gehenna Press editions.
Leonard Baskin. Watercolor study for title page of Capriccio, 1990.
Collection of Lisa Unger Baskin, Courtesy Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, New York. Watercolor drawing by Leonard Baskin.
Proof (first state) of the woodcut title page of Capriccio, 1990.
Collection of Lisa Unger Baskin, Courtesy Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, New York.
Published title page and letterpress. Ted Hughes. Capriccio. The Gehenna Press, 1990.