Home Grown at the S.A.I.C.

 

The Prints and Drawings Department of the Art Institute of Chicago is currently celebrating the 150th anniversary of the museum school with an exhibit of alumni entitled "Home Grown"

With so  many alumni over so many years, most artists are represented by only one or two pieces.

But  the exhibition includes 20 prints by Gustav Baumann, an early member of the Palette and Chisel, who once took a few night classes at the Art Institute. (most of his art training was received in Germany).

With a concurrent exhibit at the Indianapolis Museum of Art , it appears that Baumann's star is ascendant.



Check out this video to learn how his friends at the Palette and Chisel took him down to Brown County.

So many of those early Palette and Chisel members were illustrators.

This large, decorative, multi-color woodblock print reminds me of Post Impressionist painters like Vuillard.

But instead of dabs of paint, Baumann is using small nicks cut by his chisel.

 

Carl Hoeckner

Here's the other former Palette and Chisel member in the show. (though he was a bit too independent minded to stay a member for very long)