Cliff Dwellings

Gustave Baumann

Cliff Dwellings was one of twelve color woodcuts that Baumann produced for his New Mexico Portfolio. Impressions, originally printed in 1924, had a solid interior border, bore a cursive title, and were numbered over 100. Baumann completed about a quarter of the edition and did not reprint his blocks until 1931. This impression, numbered 31-125, is from the second edition and was printed from recut blocks, meaning that Baumann added or subtracted elements in the image. He did not complete the printing of the full edition.

Baumann wrote, El Rito de los Frijoles while beyond the lacy silhouettes of the Pine and Poplar one sees the sheer cliffs and at their foot the remains of habitation that invite one to speculate as to just what life must have been there in bygone days…the descendants of these vanished people now living in the valley below have the softest gentle voices and it is curious how one can hear these same voices still vibrating somewhere between the bird notes, rippling of the water and singing of the pines.