Mark Baum

Mark Baum (1903–1997) was a Polish-born American painter known initially for his self-taught landscapes and cityscapes who later developed a unique non-objective painting style focused on a single, unique glyph he called "the element." Baum's early work had considerable success in New York in the late 1920s through the early 1940s, with a number of solo shows and museum placements at the Whitney Museum and the Frick, but following World War II, Baum withdrew from the New York art scene to Cape Neddick, Maine, where he lived and painted in relative obscurity from the mid-1950s until his death.

Childhood

Mark Baum (Marek in the Polish, Munyok at home) was born January 2, 1903, in Sanok, a town that is now part of Poland, but at the time was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, near modern-day Ukraine. His parents divorced when he was a young child, a highly unusual event in his Conservative Jewish community. His mother, having few options in her native land, emigrated to the United States with Mark's older sister. Mark was left with his maternal grandparents who lived in Frysztak in the Carpathian Mountains. Mark had very little contact with his mother and father from that point on.

Eventually Mark moved with his family to the larger town of Rzeszów, and when Mark was of schooling age, he defied his grandfather and took the test to attend the German gymnasium. The test was held on Saturdays in order to discourage Jews from applying. He got in and attended the gymnasium as well as Hebrew school, and was multilingual from a young age, speaking Yiddish at home, Hebrew in the temple, Polish on the streets, and German at school.

World War I and immigration to the United States

During World War I, Mark worked in the summers at his grandfather's farm outside of the city.