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Gustave Baumann
1881–1971
BirthplaceMagdeburg, Germany
Death placeSanta Fe, New Mexico, United States of America
BiographyGustave Baumann was one of America's leading creators of color woodblock prints in the first half of the twentieth century. The son of a craftsman, Baumann emigrated from his native Germany to the United States as a child, settling in Chicago with his family. To help support them, he left school at age sixteen to work in a commercial printing shop while attending the Art Institute of Chicago's prestigious school at night. Baumann returned to Germany in 1905-06 to study at the Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Applied Arts) in Munich, determined to become a printmaker. Supporting himself as a designer of product labels, he made his first limited edition prints in 1909; the following year his work was first exhibited at the Art Institute.
From the beginning, Baumann's prints were distinguished by a strong sense of formal design. His early prints, which included interior scenes of craftsmen at work, demonstrate the influence of German printmaking tradition, stressing powerful black outlining of discrete color areas. Landscape and nature dominated Baumann's work after 1910, when he began working in the idyllic rolling hill country of rural Brown County, Indiana, an artists' mecca that hosted a group of color printmakers. The human figure diminished in importance in his images, he abandoned the black outlines of his earlier prints, and brilliant colors became an important element in his art. The first solo exhibition of Baumann's prints was held in 1913 at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and in 1915 he won a gold medal at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. Baumann was in demand as a book illustrator and creator of advertising images, notably for the Packard Motor Car Company. He organized the first museum exhibition of American color relief prints at the Art Institute in 1916.
In 1917, Baumann worked in upstate Wyoming, New York, and in the artists' colony at Provincetown, Massachusetts, where the innovative printmaker Blanche Lazzell was one of several important color woodcut artists. Two years later, he relocated to Santa Fe, New Mexico, one of the nation's most vibrant artists' communities; thereafter the landscape and nature of the American southwest, through which he frequently traveled, became the main inspiration for his often dramatically colored decorative prints. An associate member of the Taos Society of Artists and a founding member of the Society of New Mexico Painters and the Santa Fe Art Club, Baumann was an important figure on the local art scene while participating in exhibitions throughout the country. Following his marriage in 1925 to actress and singer Jane Henderson, Baumann became active in Santa Fe's theater community. He developed his skills as a wood carver, creating a large number of marionette puppets and, with his wife, touring his puppet theater. Baumann was much honored in his last years, when a group of local businessmen raised funds to assemble a complete set of his prints donated to the School of Advanced Research (formerly the School for American Research) in Santa Fe. The artist turned to painting in his last decade, when his physical deterioration made carving and printing difficult, and he died at the age of ninety.
From the beginning, Baumann's prints were distinguished by a strong sense of formal design. His early prints, which included interior scenes of craftsmen at work, demonstrate the influence of German printmaking tradition, stressing powerful black outlining of discrete color areas. Landscape and nature dominated Baumann's work after 1910, when he began working in the idyllic rolling hill country of rural Brown County, Indiana, an artists' mecca that hosted a group of color printmakers. The human figure diminished in importance in his images, he abandoned the black outlines of his earlier prints, and brilliant colors became an important element in his art. The first solo exhibition of Baumann's prints was held in 1913 at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and in 1915 he won a gold medal at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. Baumann was in demand as a book illustrator and creator of advertising images, notably for the Packard Motor Car Company. He organized the first museum exhibition of American color relief prints at the Art Institute in 1916.
In 1917, Baumann worked in upstate Wyoming, New York, and in the artists' colony at Provincetown, Massachusetts, where the innovative printmaker Blanche Lazzell was one of several important color woodcut artists. Two years later, he relocated to Santa Fe, New Mexico, one of the nation's most vibrant artists' communities; thereafter the landscape and nature of the American southwest, through which he frequently traveled, became the main inspiration for his often dramatically colored decorative prints. An associate member of the Taos Society of Artists and a founding member of the Society of New Mexico Painters and the Santa Fe Art Club, Baumann was an important figure on the local art scene while participating in exhibitions throughout the country. Following his marriage in 1925 to actress and singer Jane Henderson, Baumann became active in Santa Fe's theater community. He developed his skills as a wood carver, creating a large number of marionette puppets and, with his wife, touring his puppet theater. Baumann was much honored in his last years, when a group of local businessmen raised funds to assemble a complete set of his prints donated to the School of Advanced Research (formerly the School for American Research) in Santa Fe. The artist turned to painting in his last decade, when his physical deterioration made carving and printing difficult, and he died at the age of ninety.