The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of December 14, 2025
Hidden Meaning
1962
(American, born Germany, 1881–1971)
Image: 30.6 x 32.7 cm (12 1/16 x 12 7/8 in.); Sheet: 36.3 x 43 cm (14 5/16 x 16 15/16 in.)
Gift of Ann Baumann 2005.421
© Ann Baumann Trust
Catalogue raisonné: Chamberlain 190
Location: Not on view
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.- Gustave Baumann: Colorful Cuts. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 20, 2020-June 27, 2021).
- {{cite web|title=Hidden Meaning|url=false|author=Gustave Baumann|year=1962|access-date=14 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2005.421