Frijoles Pictographs by Gustave Baumann
Frijoles Pictographs
Gustave Baumann
Title
Frijoles Pictographs
Artist
Year
1951 / 1966
Technique
color woodcut
Image Size
10 5/8 x 20 3/4" image
Signature
pencil, lower right
Edition Size
II 54-125 1966
Annotations
titled, lower left
Reference
Chamberlain 183
Paper
cream Ansbach wove
State
published
Publisher
artist
Inventory ID
DRW2062
Price
SOLD
Description
Gustave Baumann found great inspiration exploring Bandelier National Park and several depictions of the ancient pictographs found on its cave walls were produced, as well as an exterior image of the stretch of canyon wall known as "Long House" (see "Past History", Chamberlain, cat. 168). "In the effort to be useful in the field of Art and perhaps find the answer to 'What is it?' the cave dwellings in Frijoles Canyon New Mexico had at least a partial answer. What with the rain in the canyon it was advisable to take refuge in one of a long row of caves and wait for the rain to subside. Judging from scratches on the soot-blackened walls, animals had been in there to get out of the weather just as I had. With nothing else to do those scratches intrigued me since some of them appeared to be man made. Indicating that somebody sat there at sometime, taken a sliver of bone and recorded something that had meaning. It was a fine example of the untutored mind at work and I found myself crawling in and out of a long row of caves to find similar scratches in most of them." - Baumann, p. 443, In a Modern Rendering: The Color Woodcuts of Gustave Baumann.