Bright Angel Trail 1922

This print of the Bright Angel Trail by Gustave Baumann, it’s the kind of thing that makes you think about how art becomes a way of seeing. Look at the way Baumann has carved his blocks to create texture; he’s not trying to trick you into thinking this is a photograph, he's embracing the materiality of wood. You can almost feel the gouge of the tool in the rockface. There's something about the way he's simplified the canyon, boiling it down to these planes of color, that feels really modern and fresh. I keep coming back to those trees in the foreground. They’re these almost cartoonish wedges of green, but they give the whole scene depth and scale. It’s like Baumann is saying, "Yeah, this is a representation, but it's also about the process of making." It reminds me a little of the early landscape work of Marsden Hartley, that same willingness to embrace a kind of graphic boldness. Ultimately, this piece is an invitation to see the world with new eyes.