Spring New Mexico America, 20th century

Spring New Mexico

1925, printed 1936

Gustave Baumann

(American, born Germany, 1881–1971)

America, 20th century

color woodcut

Support: Zanders laid paper

Image: 24 x 28.7 cm (9 7/16 x 11 5/16 in.); Sheet: 34.1 x 43.2 cm (13 7/16 x 17 in.)

Gift of Ann Baumann 2005.444

Catalogue raisonné: Chamberlain 102

Location: not on view

This artwork is known to be under copyright.

Description

Baumann was attracted to the crystalline light and mountain scenery of the Southwest. He was always searching for novel subject matter, like the adobe architecture and flowering trees in Spring New Mexico, and was enticed since “all of the Southwest was virgin territory to the artist.” Appreciating the cultural diversity that gave the area its special ambiance, Baumann noted about Santa Fe, “The town as a whole gave me the feeling of a fairly well-adjusted mixture of Spanish and Anglo culture, with the Indian as an interrupted civilization still pervading it all. It made for a unique situation not likely to be found anywhere else.”