Snapshot In Time: All in all, 1930 was a great year for the arts. While Baumann was carving the wood blocks for SILVER SKY, Grant Wood was painting American Gothic; Dashiell Hammett was publishing The Maltese Falcon; and Americans heard Gershwin's I Got Rhythm for the first time.

Art Smart Fact: The woodcuts of Gustave Baumann differ from most American woodcuts of the period because they did not evolve from the Japanese tradition of using single printing blocks. Instead, Baumann typcially used six or more blocks which were carved and printed on a hand press one color at a time, one after another.

About The Art: Independent and influential, Gustave Baumann stands at the center of American color relief printmaking in the 20th century. He is considered by many to be the "best of the best" of any color woodcut artist who ever worked in this difficult medium. Today, original woodcuts by Gustave Baumann cost thousands of dollars if and when you can find them.

This is a fine reproduction of SILVER SKY. Indeed, it is one of the best reproductions I have seen in over a decade of selling both original and replicated Baumann woodcuts. You will be very surprised how authentic the signature and hand-in-the-heart chop mark look and how good the colors are.....even the paper has texture. Several of the out-of-print reproductions have gone on to become valuable themselves.SILVER SKY is one of the best buys at Peggity's.