Tares

Tares — Gustave Baumann. 1952.

Medium: color woodcut. Dimensions: Image: 15.3 x 32 cm (6 x 12 5/8 in.); Sheet: 43.2 x 36.5 cm (17 x 14 3/8 in.).

Collection record: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.

In a close-up view of flowers gone to seed, Baumann captures the sensation of slender, freestanding, resilient stalks floating in a breeze. Intricate carving of the woodblocks describes the delicacy and beauty of a common weed. The tiny yellow flowers dry and shrivel while the downy white spheres dissolve and the wind scatters the seeds. An image of transience, Tares symbolizes regeneration and the cycles of nature. At the end of his career, Baumann reduced the number of blocks to carve. Only four blocks were used for Tares so that design, rather than color, is responsible for the success of the image.

Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.