Lithograph

Beautiful blue and black color etching lithograph titled "Leda" by Mort Baranoff in 1970. Edition 4/20. In Greek mythology, Leda was an Aetolian princess who became a Spartan queen. Her myth gave rise to the popular motif in Renaissance and later art of Leda and the Swan.

Mort Baranoff was born March 8, 1932 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He attended the public schools in Montreal. At the age of twenty-one, he was devastated by the crippling rheumatoid arthritis that pursued him to his death. In spite of much time spent in hospitals, he worked at advertising design and earned a diploma from the School of Art and Design of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (1952) finishing a three-year program in just two years. In 1952 he also studied graphic arts at Atelier 17 in New York. Later in 1952, with only eight years of formal schooling and a disease which forced him to leave the cold of Canada, Mort moved with his family to San Bernardino, California. He had married Timy Genrich in London, Ontario, in 1944 and his first child, Stephen, was born in Canada. His second child, Eugenie, was born in 1953 in California. Mort attended college in San Bernardino and so impressed the college officials that he was soon teaching still life painting at night at the same college. He worked part-time for an advertising firm. Later he opened an art gallery in that city, The Highland Gallery, where original paintings and prints by California artists were exhibited. For several years he commuted to Los Angeles in order to study for his B.F.A., a degree he acquired from Los Angeles State College in 1958.That same year the family moved to Los Angeles and Mort attended the University of Southern California to earn his M.F.A., which was awarded in 1959. The year in Los Angeles was a good year, for he loved the ocean, the mountains, and desert, particularly the ocean with its movement and sound. Even though teaching positions were scarce in 1959, Mort was one of two in his class to obtain employment that year. A new position took him away from California. He taught all levels of design, drawing, and art history at the University of Missouri at Columbia. In 1960, Mort joined the faculty of The University of Texas at Austin. Although his chief interest was in studio art, particularly printmaking, he was able to teach and did teach upon occasion, art education and art history. One of his most appreciated courses was the history of modern prints.

H 8 in. x W 8 in. x D 1 in.