Don Baum Papers

Don BaumWW-1948-017643

1948·Photographs, slides, correspondence, catalogs, holographs, typescripts, printed papers, posters, VHS video cassettes, DVDs, realia and ephemera.·7 boxes and flatfile materials.: W.: 137.2 cm (54 in.)

A collection of photographs, slides, correspondence, printed matter, art index cards, audio/visual materials and realia that document the life and career of artist, curator, and promoter of the arts in Chicago, Don Baum. <a href="https://artic.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/findingaids/search/searchterm/Baum,%20Don,%20Papers,%201948-2014%20(bulk%201960-1992)/field/title/mode/all/conn/and/cosuppress/1">View finding aid.</a> Collection access: Collections may be accessed in the Franke Reading Room of the Research Center at The Art Institute of Chicago, by appointment only. For further information, consult <a href="https://www.artic.edu/archival-collections/contact-usage-and-faq">the FAQ</a>. <a href="https://www.artic.edu/archival-collections/finding-aids">Finding aids by subject</a> <a href="http://digital-libraries.saic.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/findingaids">Browse all finding aids</a> <a href="http://digital-libraries.saic.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/mqc">Browse images and media</a> <a href="https://www.artic.edu/archival-collections/oral-histories">Oral histories</a> Contact the Ryerson and Burnham Art and Architecture Archives: archives@artic.edu

Catalogue

Year: 1948
Medium: Photographs, slides, correspondence, catalogs, holographs, typescripts, printed papers, posters, VHS video cassettes, DVDs, realia and ephemera.
Dimensions: 7 boxes and flatfile materials.: W.: 137.2 cm (54 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Don Baum

Artist

Don Baum

Painting

Don Baum was an American curator, artist and educator, most known as a key impresario and promoter of the Chicago Imagists, a group of artists that had an enduring impact on American art in the later twentieth century. Described by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (MCA) as "an indispensable curator of the Chicago school," Baum was known for lively and irreverent exhibitions that offered fresh perspectives combining elements of Surrealism and Pop and that broke down barriers between schooled and untrained, or so-called outsider artists. From 1956 to 1972, Baum was exhibitions director at Chicago's Hyde Park Art Center. It was there, in the 1960s, that he became involved with a group of young artists he exhibited as "Hairy Who" that later expanded to become the Chicago Imagists. That group included Ed Paschke, Jim Nutt, Roger Brown, Gladys Nilsson, and Karl Wirsum. Baum mounted two major shows at the MCA that featured the emerging artists in their first museum exhibitions: "Don Baum Sez: 'Chicago Needs Famous Artists'" (1969) and "Made in Chicago" (1973), which shaped a vision of Chicago's art world as a place of meticulous craftsmanship and vernacular inspiration.

Escanaba, MI, USA

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