Description

Hidden Meaning, Baumann’s last editioned color woodcut, is one of only a few of his experiments with abstraction. The museum’s impression is one of five trial proofs printed before the artist embellished the purple block with designs that resemble pictographs, pictorial symbols carved into rocks, by the ancient inhabitants of what is now New Mexico’s Bandelier National Monument. When the edition was printed, these designs appear as white drawings, actually unprinted areas of paper, on the purple background. Having developed arthritis, which made it difficult to cut woodblocks, Baumann made few new prints after 1961. Instead, he reprinted new versions of old prints, experimenting with color. Baumann died in 1971 at age 90 after a very successful 60-year career.