DON BAUM (1922–2008)

Don Baum, an artist and former chairman of Roosevelt University’s art department, has died, reports Trevor Jensen in the Chicago Tribune. Baum was a devoted backer of emerging local artists and had an enduring impact on Chicago’s art scene as a curator and impresario, writes Jensen. Baum came to Chicago in the 1940s to study art history at the University of Chicago and pursue his artistic ambitions. Initially focused on painting, he later turned to assemblage art, often using doll parts and other found objects. In his later years he focused on crafting small houses out of old paint-by-number pictures and other pieces. As a curator and exhibition leader, he mounted shows including 1969’s “Don Baum Says: ‘Chicago Needs Famous Artists.’” From 1956 to 1972, Baum was exhibitions director at the Hyde Park Art Center. In the 1960s, a range of young artists including a group called Hairy Who, a jab at longtime WFMT radio art critic Harry Bouras, exhibited at the center. Many of these artists later came to be known as Imagists and for a time were said to constitute the “Chicago School” of painting. “Don really believed that Chicago had a vibrant art culture, that there were terrific artists in Chicago and that people should stay here,” said Tony Jones, chancellor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. “He really wanted things to be good for artists in Chicago.”