1952
(American, born Germany, 1881–1971)
Color woodcut
Support: Beckett wove paper
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.)
Gift of Ann Baumann 2005.447
© Ann Baumann Trust
Catalogue raisonné: Chamberlain 186
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.
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