Donald Baum

Place: Escanaba

Born: 1922

Death: 2008

Biography:

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. He was born in Escanaba, Michigan in 1922 and died in Evanston, Illinois in 2008. Baum was described by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (MCA) as 'an indispensable curator of the Chicago school' and 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. Baum's curatorial and artistic work was widely covered in publications including: Artforum, Art in America, ARTnews, Art Magazine, Time, Newsweek, New Art Examiner, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Daily News, and the New York Times. His own art work is part of major public collections, including National Museum of American Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, among many. In addition to his curatorial work and artistic production, Baum was a longtime educator at several Chicago institutions, notably Roosevelt University (1948–1984).