Paul Landacre

'Hill' — 1930s American Modernism

1936

Gustave Baumann, 'Taos Placita', color woodcut, 1947, edition 125. Baumann 132. Signed, titled, and numbered '20-125' in pencil; with the artist’s Hand-in-Heart chop. A superb, richly-inked impression, with fresh colors, on fibrous oatmeal wove paper; the full sheet with margins (2 to 3 1/8 inches); slight rippling at the left sheet edge, in excellent condition. Matted to museum standards, unframed. Image size 9 5/8 x 11 1/4 inches (244 x 286 mm); sheet size 13 1/4 x 17 inches (337 x 432 mm). Collections: New Mexico Museum of Art, Phoenix Art Museum, Wichita Art Museum. ABOUT THE ARTIST Gustave Baumann (1881-1971) was a renowned printmaker and a leading figure of the American color woodcut revival whose exquisite craftsmanship and vibrant imagery captured the essence of the Southwest. "A brilliant printmaker, Baumann brought to the medium a full mastery of the craft of woodworking that he acquired from his father, a German cabinetmaker. This craftsmanship was coupled with a strong artistic training that resulted in the handsome objects we see in the exhibition today. After discovering New Mexico in 1918, Baumann began to explore in his woodblock prints of this period the light. color, and architectural forms of that landscape. His prints of this period are among the most beautiful and poetic images of the American West." —Lewis I. Sharp, Director, Denver Art Museum Baumann, the son of a craftsman, immigrated to the United States from Germany with his family when he was ten, settling in Chicago. From 1897 to 1904, he studied in the evenings at the Art Institute of Chicago, working in a commercial printmaking shop during the day. In 1905, he returned to Germany to attend the Kunstwerbe Schule in Munich, where he decided on a career in printmaking. He returned to Chicago in 1906 and worked for a few years as a graphic designer of labels. Baumann made his first prints in 1909 and exhibited them at the Art Institute of Chicago the following year. In 1910, he moved to the artists’ colony in Nashville, Indiana, where he explored the creative and commercial possibilities of a career as a printmaker. In 1915, he exhibited his color woodcuts at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, winning the gold medal. Among Baumann’s ongoing commercial activities was his work for the Packard Motor Car Company from 1914 to 1920 where he produced designs, illustrations, and color woodcuts until 1923. In 1919, Baumann’s printmaking work dominated the important exhibition of American color woodcuts at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Twenty-six of his prints were included, far more than the works of any other artist. A set of his blocks, a preparatory drawing, and seven progressive proofs complemented the exhibition. That same year, Baumann worked in New York and, over the summer, in Provincetown, Massachusetts. His airy images of Cape Cod employed soft, pastel colors and occasionally showed the influence of the white-line woodcut technique. Many of his Chicago artist friends had traveled to the southwest, and Baumann became intrigued by their paintings, souvenirs, and stories of an exotic place named Taos, New Mexico. In the summer of 1918, he spent the summer in Taos sketching and painting before visiting Santa Fe. Paul Walter, the director of the Museum of New Mexico, offered him a studio in the museum's basement. Inspired by the rugged beauty of the Southwest—the vibrant colors and dramatic landscapes of the region became a central theme in his work, influencing his artistic style and subject matter for the remainder of his career. Later in the decade, he traveled to the West Coast and made prints of California landscape. Baumann's prints became synonymous with the Southwest, capturing the spirit of its place in America's identity with a unique sense of authenticity and reverence. His iconic images of desert vistas, pueblo villages, and indigenous cultures served as visual tributes to the region's rich cultural heritage, earning him a dedicated following among collectors and curators alike. A true craftsman and artist, Baumann completed every step of the printmaking process himself, cutting each block, mixing the inks, and printing every impression on the handmade paper he selected. His dedication to true craftsmanship and his commitment to preserving the integrity of his artistic vision earned him widespread acclaim and recognition within the art world. About the vibrant colors he produced, Baumann stated, “A knowledge of color needs to be acquired since they don’t all behave the same way when ground or mixed...careful chemistry goes into the making of colors, with meticulous testing for permanence. While complicated formulae evolve new colors, those derived from Earth and metal bases are still the most reliable.” In the 1930s, Baumann became interested in puppet theater. He designed and carved his own marionettes and established a little traveling company. From 1943 to 1945, the artist carved an altarpiece for the Episcopal Church of the Holy Faith in Santa Fe. In 1952, a retrospective exhibition of his prints was mounted at the New Mexico Museum of Fine Arts. Throughout his prolific career, Baumann executed nearly four hundred color woodcuts. Baumann’s woodcuts...

Paul Landacre, 'Laguna Cove', wood engraving, 1935; edition 60 (16 printed), 2nd edition 150 (6 printed), Woodcut Society 200, Wien 247. Signed and titled in pencil. A brilliant, black impression, on cream wove Japan, with full margins (3/4 to 1 3/4 inches), in excellent condition. Archivally matted to museum standards, unframed. This impression is from the edition published for the Twentieth Presentation Print of the Woodcut Society, 1941. Printed by Torch Press, Cedar Rapids. Literature: Reproduced in 'James Swann...

Rudolph Ruzicka, 'Fountain of Sea Horses, Rome', wood engraving, c. 1915. Signed, dated, and titled in pencil. Initialed in the block, lower left. A fine, richly-inked impression, on...

Lawrence Nelson Wilbur (1897-1988), 'Tranquil Harbor' (Gloucester, Massachusetts), wood engraving, edition 55, 1958. Signed in pencil, and signe...

Bertha Landers, 'Mountain Trees', etching and drypoint, c. 1938, edition not stated but small. Signed and titled in pencil. A fine, richly-inked impres...

Samuel Chamberlain, 'Manhattan Old and New', drypoint, 1929, edition 100, Chamberlain and Kingsland 81. Signed, titled, and numbered '81/100' in pencil. Titled and annotated '30.00' in pencil, in the artist's hand, bottom margin. Matted to museum standards, unframed. A superb, finely-detailed impression, with selectively wiped plate tone, on heavy Rives cream wove paper; full margins (1 1/2 to 2 1/4 inches), in excellent condition. The subject of the print is the lower Manhattan cityscape just before the Depression. Image size 8 3/4 x 6 13/16 inches (222 x 173 mm); sheet size 12 3/4 x 10 inches (324 x 254 mm). Impressions of this work are held in the collections of the National Gallery of Art and the Zimmerli Art Museum. ABOUT THE ARTIST 'There is something about the atmospheric vibrancy of an etching which imparts a peculiar and irresistible life to architectural drawing...A copper plate offers receptive ground to the meticulously detailed drawing which so often appeals to the architect'. —Samuel Chamberlain, from the Catalogue Raisonné of his prints. Samuel V. Chamberlain (1896 - 1975), printmaker, photographer, author, and teacher, was born in Iowa. His family moved to Aberdeen, Washington in 1901, and in 1913, Chamberlain enrolled in the University of Washington in Seattle, where he studied architecture under Carl Gould. By 1915, he was enrolled in the School of Architecture of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. With the United States' involvement in the First World War, Chamberlain sailed to France, where he volunteered in the American Field Service. In 1918, he was transferred to the United States Army to complete his tour of duty. After the war, he returned to Boston and resumed his architectural studies, which he eventually discontinued, working for a few years as a commercial artist. Chamberlain received the American Field Service Scholarship in 1923, which he used to travel to Spain, North Africa, and Italy. In 1924 he was living in Paris, where he studied lithography with Gaston Dorfinant and etching and drypoint with Edouard Léon, publishing his first etching the following year. In 1927, he studied drypoint with Malcolm Osborne...

Shift Change Mike Goscinsky, American (1933–2021) Woodblock on thin wove paper, signed, titled and numbered in pencil Edition of 15/75 Image Size: 14 x 19 inches Size: 22 x 26.5 in. ...

MARY TRAVIS (Active 1935 - 40) LOTUS FLOWER ROEDING PARK. c.1935-40 White line color woodcut. Signed and titled in pencil. Small edition. 10” x 8”. Full sheet. tears in upper margin. Travis worked in Berkeley, California and was probably a follower of William S...

MARY TRAVIS (1893-1976)) LOTUS FLOWER c. 1935-40 White line color woodcut. Signed and titled in pencil. Small edition. 9 ¾” x 7 7/8”. Full sheet. Some creasing in the margins. Travis worked in Berkeley, California and was probably a follower of William S...

"The Long White Road" is an original wood engraving by Lowell Merritt Lee. A long white road stretches past empty barren trees under a cloudy sky. Image: 6" x 5" Framed: 15.37" x 1...

Antonio Frasconi created the color woodcut entitled “Alhambra XII” in 1963. This piece is signed titled, and dated in pencil. The edition is 12, and paper size is 18 x 24 inches. “...

Minimal image in black ink on buff rice paper. Taro leaves are a simple form inspiring this woodcut print. Three leaves (taro) - Landscape Print - Woodcut Print By Marc Zimmerman T...