Gustave Baumann Enchanted With Santa Fe
LiveAuctionTalk.com
Photo courtesy of Santa Fe Art Auction.
The artist Gustave Baumann was committed to living simply, quietly and close to nature. That’s what brought him to New Mexico in 1918 from Chicago. He was charmed by the people and the southwest landscape and realized New Mexico was the place he wanted to call home. The color woodcut prints he created closely reflected the spirit and atmosphere of his new homeland.
He wrote that creating color woodcut requires “sharp tools, a complete disregard for time and considerable patience in waiting.” Gustave also understood woodblock prints offered good pictures at affordable prices.
“My studio really is a shop thus I am a craftsman by choice and an artist by accident. Since the two are closely related, I’ve always felt that need for combining them to the point where they merge into a unit”
He spent his first summer in Taos then set up a studio for himself in the Museum of Fine Arts basement in Santa Fe and lived in the city for more than 50 years. He referred to his new home as “the small, untroubled world of Santa Fe.”
“Given a free choice in the matter I would have selected the Southwest as the place to be born,” he wrote. “I would then have learned Spanish, along with riding a horse and predicting the weather.”
Gustave’s lightheartedness made him a favorite among Santa Fe’s growing art community and in 1922 he was elected into the Taos Society of Artists. In his work Gustave conveyed the innocence he saw in traditional Pueblo life, the orchards, gardens and ancient Indian petroglyphs.
He did his best to interpret the exotic mysteries of the cave dwellings, ruins, and ancient drawings he encountered. Gustave carved his own a path into the art world and his popularity grew. He sold much of his work directly out of his home to collectors and customers who wrote to him or just stopped by.
Gustave enjoyed the ceremonies at various Pueblos and also collected kachina dolls and pottery. Many of his prints illustrate the rituals of traditional Native American life as well as Roman Catholic Colonial-era churches.
“My studio really is a shop thus I am a craftsman by choice and an artist by accident,” he wrote. “Since the two are closely related, I’ve always felt that need for combining them to the point where they merge into a unit.”
People knew him as Gus and he sold his woodcuts to locals and tourists alike.
During the Depression Gustave, his wife Jane and daughter Ann built and operated their own marionette theater. Over two decades the artist created 65 different marionettes, some representing the Baumann’s themselves. The artist designed and carved the marionettes, made costumes and wrote most of the scripts for the plays. Never a money maker, it was a family project that everyone especially audiences appreciated.
Today Gustave’s work is more popular than ever. His art is held in over 100 museum collections in the United States and Great Britain and his work is highly sought after by museums and collectors.
That doesn’t include reproductions such as note cards, posters and calendar images.
On June 24-25, 2022, the Santa Fe Art Auction held its Summer sale. Included in the auction was a collection of Gustave’s work.
Here are some current values.
Gustave Baumann Color Woodcuts
Taos Placita; edition 18 of 125; signed; 1947; 9 ½ inches by11 inches; $12,200.
Ranchos de Taos; edition 106 of 125; signed; 1919; 9 3/8 inches by 11 ¼ inches; $20,740.
Aspen Red River; edition 32 of 100; signed; 1925; 10 ½ inches by 12 inches; $20,740.
Punch Hunting Chipmunks; edition 4 of 100; signed 1926; 10 ½ inches by 12 inches; $20,740.
Bound for Taos; edition 57 of 125; signed; 1930; 9 ½ inches by 11 1/8 inches; $24,440.
