Gustave Baumann (June 27, 1881 – October 8, 1971) was an American printmaker and painter, and one of the leading figures of the color

woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas tha ...

revival in America. His works have been shown at the New York

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

The Cleveland Museum of Art The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, located in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on the city's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian ...

, the National Gallery of Art in

Washington DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, and the

New Mexico Museum of Art The New Mexico Museum of Art is an art museum in Santa Fe governed by the state of New Mexico. It is one of four state-run museums in Santa Fe that are part of the Museum of New Mexico. It is located at 107 West Palace Avenue, one block off the ...

. He is also recognized for his role in the 1930s as area coordinator of the

Public Works of Art Project The Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) was a New Deal program designed to employ artists that operated from 1933 to 1934. The program was headed by Edward Bruce, under the United States Treasury Department with funding from the Civil Works Admin ...

of the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

Biography

Gustave Baumann was born in

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river. Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebu ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, and moved to the United States in 1891 with his family. By age 17 he was working for an

engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an in ...

house while attending night classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. He returned to Germany in 1904 to attend the

Kunstgewerbeschule A Kunstgewerbeschule (English: ''School of Arts and Crafts'' or S''chool of Applied Arts'') was a type of vocational arts school that existed in German-speaking countries from the mid-19th century. The term Werkkunstschule was also used for thes ...

in Munich where he studied

wood carving Wood carving is a form of woodworking by means of a cutting tool (knife) in one hand or a chisel by two hands or with one hand on a chisel and one hand on a mallet, resulting in a wooden figure or figurine, or in the sculptural ornamentation ...

and learned the techniques of wood block prints. After returning to the United States, he began producing color woodcuts as early as 1908, earning his living as a graphic artist. He spent time in

Brown County, Indiana Brown County is a county in Indiana which in 2010 had a population of 15,242. The county seat (and only incorporated town) is Nashville. History The United States acquired the land from the Native Americans, part of which forms the southwest s ...

as a member of the

Brown County Art Colony The Brown County Art Colony is an artist colony formed in Nashville and Brown County, Indiana. Adolph Shulz is considered to be the founder of the colony, encouraging many Indiana and regional artists to come to Brown County to paint. Though arti ...

, developing his printmaking technique. He followed the traditional European method of color relief printing using oil-based inks and printing his blocks on a small press. This contrasted with the trend at the time of many American artists to employ hand rubbed woodblock prints in the Japanese traditional style. By this time he had developed his personal artist's seal: the opened palm of a hand on a heart. His Mill Pond is the largest color woodcut produced at the time. These were shown at the 1915

Panama–Pacific International Exposition The Panama–Pacific International Exposition was a world's fair held in San Francisco, California, United States, from February 20 to December 4, 1915. Its stated purpose was to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal, but it was widely s ...

where Baumann won the gold medal for color woodcut. Gustave Baumann House, Santa Fe NM

In 1918, he headed to the Southwest to inquire into the artists' colony of

Taos, New Mexico Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Initially founded in 1615, it was intermittently occupied until its formal establishment in 1795 by Nuevo México Governor Fernando Ch ...

. Thinking it too crowded and too social, he boarded the train which stopped in Santa Fe. Its

art museum An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own collection. It might be in public or private ownership and may be accessible to all or have restrictions in place. Although primarily con ...

had opened the previous year and its curator, Paul Water, persuaded Baumann to stay in Santa Fe. In Santa Fe, Baumann befriended many local artists and took part in various community celebrations. He made the head of the first

Zozobra The Zozobra (also known as "Old Man Gloom") is a giant marionette effigy constructed of wood, wire and cotton cloth that is built and burned prior to the annual Fiestas de Santa Fe in Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States. It stands high. As it ...

and carved and performed with

marionette A marionette (; french: marionnette, ) is a puppet controlled from above using wires or strings depending on regional variations. A marionette's puppeteer is called a marionettist. Marionettes are operated with the puppeteer hidden or revealed ...

s. He was a member of the

Society of American Graphic Artists The Society of American Graphic Artists (SAGA) is a not for profit national fine arts organization serving professional artists in the field of printmaking. SAGA provides its members with exhibition, reviews and networking opportunities in the N ...

and the

Taos Society of Artists The Taos Society of Artists was an organization of visual arts founded in Taos, New Mexico. Established in 1915, it was disbanded in 1927. The Society was essentially a commercial cooperative, as opposed to a stylistic collective, and its foundation ...

. Baumann married Jane Devereaux Henderson on June 25, 1925. Their daughter, Ann, was born on July 31, 1927. He remained in Santa Fe for more than fifty years until his death there in 1971.

Artwork

In addition to his popular color woodcuts, Baumann also made

oil painting Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...

s and furniture. His work depicted southwestern landscapes, ancient Indian petroglyphs, scenes of

pueblo In the Southwestern United States, Pueblo (capitalized) refers to the Native tribes of Puebloans having fixed-location communities with permanent buildings which also are called pueblos (lowercased). The Spanish explorers of northern New Spain ...

life, and gardens and orchards. File:'Apple Blossom', wood block print by Gustave Baumann.JPG, ''Apple Blossom,'' wood block print, 1917 File:'Aspen Red River' by Gustave Baumann, New Mexico Museum of Art.JPG, ''Aspen Red River,'' 1924 File:Summer Clouds by Gustave Baumann, 1925, color woodcut.jpg, ''Summer Clouds,'' 1925, color woodcut File:Rain in the Mountains by Gustave Baumann, 1926, color woodcut.png, ''Rain in the Mountains,'' 1926, color woodcut

Prints

Refer to Gala Chamberlain's book ''In A Modern Rendering: The Color Woodcuts of Gustave Baumann: A Catalog Raisonne'' (2019) to see an array of works completed by Gustave Baumann during his lifetime. This book documents over 429 distinct images. Highlights include: * ''In the Hills o' Brown'' (1910) :Twelve prints depicting views of

Nashville, Indiana Nashville is a town in Washington Township, Brown County, Indiana, United States. The population was 803 at the 2010 census. The town is the county seat of Brown County and is the county's only incorporated town. The town is best known as the c ...

, as well as interior scenes. Includes ''The Blacksmith Shop'', ''The Print Shop'', ''The Town of Nashville'', ''The Wagon Shop'', ''In the Hills o' Brown'', ''The Rug Weaver'', ''The Courthouse Yard'', ''An Evening Chat'', ''Clinching the Argument'', ''The Suspension Bridge'', ''The Door Yards'', and ''Mathis Alley''. * ''New Mexico Portfolio'' (1924) :Comprises ''Cliff Dwellings'', ''Sanctuario – Chimayo'', ''My Garden'', Talaya Peake, ''The Bishop's Apricot'', ''Chile con Cabre'', ''Night at the Fiesta – Taos'', ''Talpa Chapel'', ''Corn Dance – Santa Clara'', ''Lost in the Desert'', ''San Geronimo – Taos'', ''Beginning of the Fiesta'', and ''San Domingo Pueblo''. * Five views of the Grand Canyon: ''Bright Angel Trail'' (1921), ''Pines, Grand Canyon'' (1921), ''Pinon, Grand Canyon'' (1921), ''Cedar, Grand Canyon'' (1921), and ''Grand Canyon'' (c. 1927–1930). * Four Southern Arizona views (1924): ''Palo Verde and Ocotea'', ''Cholla and Sahuaro'', ''Superstition Mountain'', and ''Wild Horse Mesa''. * Mid-1920s views of the Pacific coast: ''Pelican Rookery'', ''Redwood'', ''Sequoia Forest'', ''Coast Range'', ''Singing Woods'', ''Windswept Eucalyptus'', ''Redwood Muir Woods'', ''Point Lobos'', ''Point Lobos Rock Garden'', ''Monterey Cypress'', and ''Song of the Sea''.

Illustrated books

* ''All the Year Round'' (1912, text by

James Whitcomb Riley James Whitcomb Riley (October 7, 1849 – July 22, 1916) was an American writer, poet, and best-selling author. During his lifetime he was known as the "Hoosier Poet" and "Children's Poet" for his dialect works and his children's poetry. His ...

), 12 electroplate illustrations by Gustave Baumann * ''Pirates! Or, The Cruise of the Black Revenge: A Melodrama in Thirteen Acts'' (1916), published by Brothers of the Book, text by Kendall Banning and 13 original woodcut illustrations by Gustave Baumann. Printing was limited to 525 copies. * ''Pirates! Or, The Cruise of the Black Revenge'', (1918) Text by Kendall Banning and 13 photoengraved illustrations by Gustave Baumann. This edition was reduced to 2/3 size of the original 1916 printing. * ''Indian Pottery Old and New'' (1919). text and woodcut illustrations by Gustave Baumann. Printing was limited to 50 copies of which only a handful were completed. * ''Chips an' Shavings'' (1929), woodcut text and 3 photoengraved illustrations by Gustave Baumann. Printing was limited to 100 copies. * ''Frijoles Canyon Pictographs'' (1939), text and 25 woodcut illustrations by Gustave Baumann. Printing was limited to 480 copies * ''Indian Pottery Old and New'' (2020). text and woodcut illustrations by Gustave Baumann. Printing was limited to 145 copies. Produced by the Press At the Palace of the Governors using Gustave Baumanns original woodblocks.

Museum collections

Baumann's work is held in the permanent collections of the Akron Art Museum, Art Institute of Chicago,

Indianapolis Museum of Art The Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) is an encyclopedic art museum located at Newfields, a campus that also houses Lilly House, The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park: 100 Acres, the Gardens at Newfields, the Beer Garden, and more. It ...

Stark Museum of Art The Stark Museum of Art in Orange, Texas, houses one of the nation's most significant collections of American Western art. The Western Art collection conveys the artistic interpretation of the western region over two centuries. It spans the explo ...

, among other venues.

References

Citations

Works cited

External links

*
Gustave Baumann Biography
at the Annex Galleries {{DEFAULTSORT:Baumann, Gustave 1881 births 1971 deaths 20th-century American painters 20th-century American printmakers American male painters Artists from Indiana Artists from Santa Fe, New Mexico Federal Art Project artists German emigrants to the United States Taos Society of Artists 20th-century American male artists