Join us in the galleries for a discussion on how the replicas were created and see the momentous moment when Cristina Masoliver of Los Titiriteros introduces one of her puppets to a Baumann replica!
Gustave Baumann was an artist of many trades, including printmaking, furniture making and he hand-carved and decorated wooden puppets, called marionettes, and brought them to life in puppet shows. Some characters were tall and skinny, others were short and stout, some were animals and some were humans, but all had a personality and story of their own. He created a traveling marionette theater complete with scripts, costumes, props, backdrops, scenery and a stage. Over a twenty year period, he created 65 marionettes; however he was not a puppeteer, leaving the actual performances to Jane and Teatro Duende. In 1932 the Baumann Marionette Christmas Show at the Museum became a cherished community tradition. The last public performance during his lifetime was in 1959 at the Museum of International Folk Art. For thirty four years the marionettes were tucked away in storage and in a fragile sad state, but continuing the performances would kill them. The solution was to create replicas created by the capable hands of Los Titiriteros, a Taos-based puppet company directed by Cristina Masoliver.
