Baumann, Gustave, 1881-1971

Gustave Baumann (1881-1971) was born in Magdeburg, Germany. During a brief period of study in Munich (1905) he created his first woodcuts. As a young boy, Baumann imigrated to Chicago where he began his career in a commercial-arts studio. At night he studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, as he put it to get nearer to art. He also had strong ties to the Brown County (IN) colony, and created scenes of purity, beauty, and ease that spoke of an innocence in America.

In New York and Provincetown, he widened his circle of artistic associations to include the printmakers Ethal Mars, L.O. Griffith, and B.J.O. Nordfeldt. On the advice of fellow artist Walter Ufer, Baumann traveled to Taos, New Mexico, in the spring of 1918.

Baumann was one of the founders of the Santa Fe art colony along with John Sloan, Randall Davey and Freemont Ellis. Of all the artists who call Santa Fe, New Mexico, their home, Gustave Baumann is one of the town's most beloved and respected. Baumann was renowned as a master of wood-cuts and puppet-making. He lived in Santa Fe for more than fifty years, carving into wood southwestern landscapes, ancient Indian petroglyphs, scenes of traditional Pueblo life, and spring and summer gardens and orchards that are so immediately recognizable that one is tempted to say one knows not only the places but the artist himself.

From the guide to the Inventory of Gustave Baumann Collection, 1918-1993, (Museum of Fine Arts Library and Archives, Santa Fe, NM)