Reviews

"Governor Nelson Rockefeller looked in on the...art exhibit by the... Civil Service Employees Association... He seemed particularly taken with a sculpture by Carl Baumann of the Commerce Department, entitled 'Oil Refinery.'"

Albany Times-Union, January 7, 1965


"The work is all highly competent technically, and in some cases...a welded metal sculpture by Carl Baumann of Rensselaer... it is of very high quality indeed."

Robert M. Coates, New Yorker review of "Art-in-Science" exhibition at Albany Institute of History & Art, October 16, 1965


"Attracting more attention than almost anything else among the 354 works were two 'constructions' by architect Carl Baumann of Rensselaer."

"Schenectady Art Exhibit Preview Draws Crowd," Peg Churchill, Schenectady Gazette, May 7, 1966


"This work comes closer than any kinetic sculpture I have seen before to expressing the poetry of mechanical movement."

Critic T.H. Littlefield, Albany-Times Union, December 10, 1967

"I think it's great, exciting work, very much a part of our times. It has a quality of magic about it which is terribly important to art...And in addition to being an artistic success, it's also a kind of technical triump. I'm very impressed."

Edward Cowley, Art Department Chairman at State University of New York at Albany, as told to reporter William Kennedy, "The Night Carl Baumann Became a Local Celebrity Started Like Other Nights," Albany-Times Union, December 10, 1967


"I'm just an assistant cook & bottle washer with CAPS, but I took a peek at your slides & photos as I was sending them out to you, and I hope you don't mind my saying I think your works are the most splendidly beautiful and exciting I've ever seen. They're good for the soul--Thank you!"

Judy Stern, NY Creative Artists Public Service Program, April 4, 1972


"Remarkable mechanical imagery: This is what Oswego sculptor Carl Baumann sees around him. And this is the quality of his work that fascinates anyone who sees it...Partly because of their uniqueness Baumann's work has met with mixed success. Though viewers are intrigued by it, the established art world isn't quite sure where it fits into the mainstream."

"Area Architect Sculpts 'Licons'," Russell Tarby, Palladium-Times, December, 10, 1977

Dear Carl:

The exhibit of your sculptures has proved to be one of the most suitable ever held in the Planetarium. The colors, movement and shapes all seem to suggest the future and fit very appropriately into our exhibit hall.

During the first three months of their display here, more than 45,000 people have enjoyed seeing your works. I hope that not many others are asking for them to be shown elsewhere and that we can continue to display them to our visitors for the first few months of the year.

Thanks so much from all of us for making this display possible.

Donald S. Hall, Strassenberg Planetarium Director, January 1979

I am fascinated by the areas in between; between art and architecture, between art and science, between art and philosophy and religion. I am fascinated by the edge which both separates and holds together the two sides of the coin--the light between day and night--the twilight zone.

I think that abstract visual art should be looked at the way music, which is also an abstraction, is listened to. It should be judged by what it is, rather than what it is supposed to be.

I believe that creativity is really discovery; the seeking and finding of pre-existing relationships. In this sense, art is just one of a myriad of ways in which humans participate in the greater creation of which we are all a part.

Carl Baumann, Albany Institute exhibit catalog, December 1967