Hopi Corn

 

Gustave Baumann

  1881 - 1971 (biography)

1938  

color woodcut 

8 1/8 x 8 3/8" image 

pencil, lower right 

II 89-125 

titled, lower left 

Chamberlain 154 

cream Ansbach wove 

published 

artist 

DRW2065 

SOLD

Printed from just two wood blocks, Hopi Corn is one of Baumann’s most stylized yet elegant images. Impressions are sometimes entitled Hopi Maize. Baumann held great respect for the religions, cultures, and ceremonials of the indigenous people he met. Corn or maize was important to the daily life of the American Indian tribes of the southwest, and J.W. Hendron stated that '"few Indian ruins are excavated in which the remains of corn are not found." Corn was planted, harvested, dried, ground, eaten, and traded. The husks were woven into protective coverings or used as binding for grass brooms. Corn dances or ceremonials are performed at various pueblos annually.