For You: A Not Too Fuzzy New Year

Gustave Baumann

Gustave Baumann did this woodcut late in his long career, during which he produced yearly holiday cards from 1919 to 1970, the year he died. The card reads "For You / A / Not too / Fuzzy / New / Year / With / A / Real / Silver / Lining", a sentiment that holds such practical hope this New Year of 2021.

The U.S. was coming out of a tumultuous year (1968) which included the Tet Offensive in Viet Nam, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, and, on December 24, the Apollo 8 manned spacecraft to the moon, to name a few. Baumann's sentiments were felt by much of the country - hope for a silver lining in 1969, however Viet Nam remained an ugly reality.

This greeting card is listed and described in his catalogue raisonné by Gala Chamberlain: "In a Modern Rendering: The Color woodcuts of Gustave Baumann", entry number 385, page 566.