Artist Info
Gustave Baumann
Gustave Baumann was born in Magdeburg, Germany in 1881 and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1891 where they established a home in Chicago. At age sixteen, shortly after his father left the family, Baumann became an apprentice at a commercial print studio and began taking evening classes in drawing and design at the Art Institute of Chicago. By 1903 the artist had established his own commercial art studio, and in 1905 he returned to Germany to study for a year at the Königliche Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Arts and Crafts) in Munich. In Germany Baumann studied wood carving and the graphic arts, in particular the art of relief printmaking from Hans Neumann and Maximillian Daso.
After completing his studies, Baumann returned to work in Chicago and in Brown County, Illinois. The Arts and Crafts movement's emphasis on craftsmanship, and the interest in Japanese woodblock prints generated by the recently opened trade with Japan, resulted in increased interest in the graphic arts and more opportunities to exhibit artist-made prints. The 1915 Panama Pacific International Exhibition in San Francisco included an exhibition of artists' prints; Baumann received his first significant national recognition when he took home a gold medal for his color woodcut prints.
At the encouragement of artist Walter Ufer, Baumann spent the summer of 1918 in Taos, New Mexico. Toward the end of the summer, and on route back to the East Coast, Baumann stopped in Santa Fe to see an exhibition of prints that he had organized at New Mexico's Museum of Fine Arts. Enchanted with New Mexico and Santa Fe in particular, the artist began to plan a trip back to Chicago to earn the money needed to finance his relocation to New Mexico.
Instead, the museum's curator, Paul Walter, secured a small loan and studio space for Baumann in the basement of the newly opened art museum. This was all the encouragement Baumann needed to stay. Baumann quickly settled in and became an integral part of the Santa Fe arts community.
Gustave Baumann lived in Santa Fe until his death in 1971. Many of his most popular prints depict the southwestern landscape and regional traditions of his beloved New Mexico.
