Printing the Spirit: Gustave Baumann's Santos

$34.95 at New Mexico Museum of Art.

In 1927, Gustave Baumann, already celebrated for his colorful and innovative woodcuts, turned his attention to documenting the works of traditional New Mexican santeros (saint makers). One of the first early-twentieth-century artists to recognize that the carving of bultos and the painting of retablos represented a distinct art form that merited respect and preservation on its own terms, Baumann sought to express their essence through the medium he had mastered. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, he partnered…