The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 28, 2024

Night Ceremony

Night Ceremony

1938, printed 1948
(American, born Germany, 1881–1971)
© Ann Baumann Trust
Catalogue raisonné: Chamberlain 156; Acton, Krause & Yurtseven 57
Location: not on view

Description

Night Ceremony, one of Baumann’s very few abstract compositions, represents ornamented fragments of Native American pottery overlaid and jigsawed together. A collector of Native American ceramics, Baumann wrote, “Pot shards are a kind of scrambled history of New Mexico with essential words omitted that archaeologists are forever trying to find.” Two blocks were used to print Night Ceremony: one for dark gray and the other for adhesive. While the adhesive was still tacky, thin leaves of aluminum were applied side by side. The gray ink, aluminum leaf, and negative space (the white of the paper) create the image that simulates the jet black and burnished luster of Santa Clara Pueblo pottery.
  • Gustave Baumann: Colorful Cuts. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 20, 2020-June 27, 2021).
  • {{cite web|title=Night Ceremony|url=false|author=Gustave Baumann|year=1938, printed 1948|access-date=28 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1992.337