Leonard Baskin: Franklin Delano Roosevelt Presidential Memorial

On May 2nd, 1997, President Bill Clinton dedicated the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in the nation’s capital. Designed by Lawrence Halprin, it incorporates granite, water, sculptures and carved inscriptions to convey the experience of Roosevelt’s four terms in office.
Baskin was chosen as one of the memorial’s sculptors in 1978; planning for the work stalled, and then was revived, and the memorial was finally completed in 1995. Baskin’s thirty-foot long bas-relief of Roosevelt’s funeral cortege, installed above a still pool in a deep alcove, is the most contemplative part of the memorial, a profound representation of the grief of a nation.

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