Item: Stencil – “Russell W Baldwin Created This Unique Work Of Art For…”

Designer/Maker: Russell W. Baldwin – One of San Diego’s most important midcentury artists, Baldwin studied at San Diego State during the late 50s with Everett Gee Jackson, Jean Swiggett, John Dirks, Martha Longenecker and Ilse Ruocco. He explored many forms of expression: painting, sculpture, drawing, ceramics and various constructed art forms and was a member of the San Diego Art Guild, the Allied Craftsmen and the Contemporary Arts Committee of the Fine Arts Society. Some of his first one-man exhibitions took place in La Jolla at the Jefferson Gallery in 1964 and the La Jolla Museum of Art in 1965. He wrote his master’s thesis on sand-casting for sculpture during this period, but quickly moved on to hard-edge constructions and polychrome mixed-media works of sculpture that were exhibited in La Jolla and in his 1966 one-man exhibit at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. He was one of San Diego’s earliest pioneers of conceptual art, working alongside fellow artist-teachers Bob Matheny and John Baldessari, who taught at Southwestern College and UCSD while Baldwin taught at Palomar College. There, he established the Boehm Gallery and taught in the art department for many years.

Description: In typically late 1970s post-studio form, Baldwin made this clever stencil that could be painted on anything, leaving blank spaces for the recipient’s name and the date to be filled in. The only documented use of the stencil appears on a sealed, empty cardboard box for Russell’s friends, Robert and Norene Matheny in Feburary of 1979. The stencil is a captivating artifact in its own right, the box is not available. From the estate of Russell Baldwin.

Dimensions: 24″ x 6″

Condition: Very good

Price: HOLD

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