The woodcut prints carved and hand printed by Thayer Carter tell the story of an artist’s life. Inspired both by his travels and sites near his Santa Fe, New Mexico home, Carter’s artworks trace 50 plus years of craftsmanship and refinement. Using material from his voluminous sketchbook drawings, Carter creates printed images that capture specific time and place. The landscapes that attract Carter come from both the natural and built environment, and are as diverse as the villagescapes of northern New Mexico, the jungles of Asia and the Caribbean, scenes of urban Europe and the coastline of the North Atlantic.  

A Sense of Place: The Art of Thayer Carter exhibits the extensive woodcut print collection of Thayer Carter, along with a number of related paintings, and is complemented by examples of the tradition of the relief print medium in Santa Fe with works by Gustave Baumann and Willard Clark.

​

About the Artists

​

Thayer Carter is a painter and printmaker whose work has been inspired by over 40 years of travels throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Asia and South America. His pictures, on paper and canvas, are strongly influenced by early American Modernists, ranging from Lyonel Feininger and Charles Sheeler to Lynd Ward and Rockwell Kent. The landscapes that attract him come from both the natural and built environment, and are as diverse in their subject matter as the villagescapes of northern New Mexico, the jungles of Asia and the Carribean, scenes of urban Europe and the coastline of the North Atlantic. Carter attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and The Art Students League in New York. His work has been exhibited in New York, Boston, Seattle, Santa Fe and Cuenca, Ecuador, with work published in the United States and Europe. He is a recipient of a fellowship from Vermont Studio Center and Artist-in-Residence of The Rooms and Landfall Trust, Newfoundland. Carter was Head Fabricator for the Exhibitions Division of the Museum of New Mexico for 18 years. He currently lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with his family.

 

Gustave Baumann (1881 – 1971) was an American printmaker and painter, and one of the leading figures of the color woodcut revival in America. His works have been shown at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cleveland Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, and the New Mexico Museum of Art. He is also recognized for his role in the 1930s as area coordinator of the Public Works of Art Project of the Works Progress Administration.

​

Willard Clark (1910 – 1992) Clark trained in art schools in Argentina, New York, and Provincetown. He then became an accomplished commercial printer in the 1930s and soon created a typographic style that, along with his own woodcut illustrations, became closely identified with Santa Fe. After closing his printing shop in 1942, Clark spent over thirty years as a master tool and die machinist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, during which time he did little artistic wood engraving. Instead, he made sophisticated steel parts used in nuclear research. Upon retirement from LANL in 1979, he unpacked his engraving tools, bought a small proof press, and produced a body of prints that are now keenly sought by collectors for their artistry and precision of technique.