BACKGROUND

Edith Baumann is an abstract artist based in Santa Monica, California. She was born in Ames, Iowa in 1948. Baumann received her B.F.A. from University of California, Los Angeles in 1975 and completed an M.F.A. in painting at the University of Southern California in 1985. Her paintings are highly minimalist composed of repeating pattern and geometric shapes. Baumann’s work has been featured in many solo and group exhibitions. Her Escalette piece Black/ Green #3 is an acrylic painting on canvas from 1986. Its dimensions are rather large being 64 1/4 × 58 in. (163.2 × 147.3 cm) to catch the viewers attention and be a more visual experience.

Based on the main characteristic of minimalism, Baumann’s composition was fashioned with the repetition and layering of colors, and juxtaposition of colors that challenges the perception of black and white. Physiologically and psychologically, the longer the eye rests on the piece, the more an emergence of colors exists. The geometric pattern begins to vibrate and disappear; a similar concept to whiteouts where the eyes get tricked and challenged by the big white expanses of snow. 




COLLATERAL PIECE

The object I chose to represent my Escalette Piece, the 1996 Black/ Green #3 by Edith Baumann, is a set of skis. Skiing is a fast-motion sport that is a metaphor for emotional regulation. In order to get down the mountain safely, the skier must learn to respect the terrain, creating a sense of vulnerability as the power of nature is much larger than any human action. Snow does not fall from the sky to please skiers, it falls the way it wants creating a terrain of natural imperfection. The skier must engage with the experience in order to learn how to manage it. Emotional regulation can only be learned by doing it which in itself is natural imperfection as well. 

Baumann’s techniques evoke the art of skiing, for skiing is a moment where one’s body is in rhythm exploding with radiance, there is connectedness with nature, a field of monochromatic white glows, and the crisp air ignites the body. Nature demands disciplinary attention similar to how Baumann’s graphic elements demand structural execution in order for the viewers to have a successful experience with the piece. Art historian and critic Frances Colpitt for the Franklin Parrasch Gallery also wrote “In [Baumann’s] paintings, color is radiant, monochromatic fields breathe, and crisp edges quiver almost imperceptibly. The geometric elements that appear throughout these works demand exacting structural execution, while the areas of floating, gauze-like color are the product of Baumann’s graceful and unrehearsed freehand.”

COLLATERAL PROCESS

I used Photoshop to take details from four of Baumann’s paintings and transfered them onto skis. As her work is now presented in a different medium, it is able to have new context. Now, as the  skis move, there is a new glow to them as they  glide  across  the  white snow. There is a new direct relationship between art and nature. To promote more of Edith Baumann’s work I incorporated three more of her pieces from different collections. 

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Artistcloseup, Team. “Exhibition: Edith Baumann.” Artistcloseup.com - Your Favorite Place to Discover New Artists, Artistcloseup.com - Your Favorite Place to Discover New Artists, 18 Oct. 2021, https://www.artistcloseup.com/blog/franklin-parrasch-gallery-presents-edith-baumann.

“Black/Green #3.” – Works – EMuseum, 1 Jan. 1986, https://escalettecollection.chapman.edu/objects/955/blackgreen-3?ctx=f3a72f7c4c53c9a4268c0230a0c1074e1d75ca58&idx=37.

“Cloud Cover.” McClain Gallery, https://www.mcclaingallery.com/exhibitions/cloud-cover/press-release.

Edith Baumann, https://www.edithbaumannstudio.com/.

-, SnowsBest, et al. “The Meaning of Life Is Skiing or Snowboarding.” SnowsBest, 19 July 2020, https://www.snowsbest.com/meaning-life-skiing-snowboarding/.

Example #3
Example #4