Rock Mountain Appearance

Sculpture

DePaul Art Museum

Name/Title

Entry/Object ID

2018.06

Description

Classic house structure with mountain/jesus scene painted all over; house mounted on wooden paddle or cutting board

Artwork Details

Medium

Oil on canvas board wood

Acquisition

Notes

Collection of DePaul Art Museum; Gift of the Estate of Charles & Camille Baum

Made/Created

Artist

Baum, Don

Date made

1986

Ethnography

Notes

American

Inscription/Signature/Marks

Location

Bottom of wood paddle

Transcription

'Betsy Rosenfield Gallery, Inc. [Artwork Info]

Notes

Inscription Type: adhesive label

Location

Bottom of wood paddle

Transcription

[Title, Date]

Notes

Inscription Type: adhesive label

Location

Bottom of wood paddle

Transcription

'Carl Hammer Gallery +[artwork info]

Notes

Inscription Type: adhesive label

Lexicon

Getty AAT

Concept

mountainous, environmental concepts, miniature (size attribute), size/dimensions, form attributes

Hierarchy Name

Associated Concepts (hierarchy name), Attributes and Properties (hierarchy name)

Facet

Associated Concepts Facet, Physical Attributes Facet

Dimensions

Dimension Description

overall

Width

7-1/4 in

Depth

16 in

Length

13-1/4 in

Exhibition

DPAM Collects: Happy Little Trees and Other Recent Acquisitions

Interpretative Labels

Label Type

Cultural/Historical Context

Label

Don Baum (American, b. 1922 – 2008) Rock Mountain Appearance, 1986 Oil on canvas board and wood Collection of DePaul Art Museum, gift of the Estate of Charles and Camille Baum 2018.6 A long-time curator at the Hyde Park Art Center, Don Baum gave rise to the Chicago Imagists by offering the group of representational artists their first exhibition at one of the city’s most respected institutions at the time. Interested in unorthodox uses for materials, form, and techniques, he removed distinctions between trained or un-trained, outsider or established artist. He was also an artist himself. Baum’s Domus series of miniature houses use found materials, here a cutting board and paint-by-number panels, purchased at garage sales. Sold as paint guides since the 1950s, the paint-by-numbers kits claimed to make anyone an artist “from the first try.” Baum appreciated the beloved-by-consumers, berated-by-critics dichotomy and created new contexts and questions around the hierarchy of fine art painting.