16 Facts About Don Baum

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.

From 1956 to 1972, Don Baum was exhibitions director at Chicago's Hyde Park Art Center.

Don Baum attended Michigan State College before coming to Chicago in the early 1940s to pursue his interest in art, initially at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and then at the University of Chicago where he studied art history and earned a PhD in 1947.

Don Baum was named exhibitions director at Hyde Park Art Center in 1956.

Don Baum died in Evanston, Illinois, in October 2008 at the age of 86.

In 1964, Don Baum was approached at the Hyde Park Art Center by artists Jim Nutt, Gladys Nilsson and James Falconer about a group exhibit.

The informal group, and Don Baum, received national attention, with subsequent shows at the San Francisco Art Institute, the School of Visual Arts in New York, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

Don Baum first gained notice for disturbing assemblage works featuring bones and cast-off dolls and doll parts, such as The Babies of della Robbia, now part of the MCA's permanent collection.

In 1979, after a period of artistic inactivity, Don Baum began creating new works after seeing photographs of thatched structures built by boat people from Southeast Asia.

Don Baum served at many Chicago educational institutions over an education career of more than 45 years.

Don Baum began as a Professor of Art at Roosevelt University in 1948, where he continued teaching until 1984.

Don Baum served there as Chairman of the Art Department.

Don Baum taught painting at the Hyde Park Art Center, and taught painting and drawing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Don Baum's art is represented in numerous public and private collections, including those of: The Art Institute of Chicago, Brauer Museum of Art, Fonds National d'Art Contemporain, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Hallmark Cards, Illinois Collections, Illinois State Museum, Madison Art Center, Milwaukee Art Museum, National Museum of American Art, Smart Museum of Art, Weatherspoon Art Museum, and Racine Art Museum.

Don Baum launched the careers of many artists who became nationally and internationally known, and helped establish the notion of a Chicago counter-narrative to the privileged art narratives of his time.

Art world figures in Chicago noted Don Baum's lasting significance at his passing.