Twenty assorted 5 x 7 in. blank notecards (5 each of 4 designs) with envelopes in a decorative box.
Early in his career, Gustave Baumann (American, b. Germany, 1881–1971) lived in Chicago, but he found his true home in New Mexico when he moved to Santa Fe in 1918. The burgeoning arts community welcomed the successful printmaker, who was inspired by other transplanted artists as well as by Native American potters and painters.
Baumann remained there for the rest of his life. During those fifty years, his images grew more complex as he devised innovative techniques to create luminous prints with warm, blended hues. He produced a wealth of woodblock prints that capture the spirit of the southwestern people, their rituals, and the unique surrounding landscape.
The images in this box of notecards are included in the book Gustave Baumann's Southwest (Pomegranate, 2007), with text by Joseph Traugott, curator of twentieth-century art at the New Mexico Museum of Art.