Karl Herman Baumann, painter, designer, and printmaker, was born on 26 December 1911 in Leipzig, Germany. His father, Willie, was an engraver and embosser from a prosperous family who immigrated with his wife, Augusta, and son to the U.S. just before the outbreak of WWI. Willie found work as a lithographer for a time before he and Augusta separated, at which point he left for San Francisco and Karl stayed in New York with Augusta. Around this time, Karl’s mother began teaching him to draw. An artist herself, she held a job as a postcard artist and a toymaker, pouring lead molds of toy soldiers. After she died from lead poisoning, Karl was sent to live with his maternal grandparents who helped foster a love of painting in the young boy.

By 1929, Willie had saved enough to bring Karl to San Francisco, where they worked together as commercial printers at Schmidt Lithograph. Karl married in 1934 and he and his new wife, Naomi Pratt, had a son who they named Nicholas. Meanwhile, Karl would continue to draw and paint on his own time, focusing on themes of social realism, industrial impact on nature, and increasingly abstracted landscapes. He was eventually fired from the lithography company for trying to unionize, but in 1936 the WPA employed Karl as an easel painter, and he was able to focus entirely on fine art and exhibiting. Establishing himself as a modernist landscape painter with roots in German Expressionism, he won his first major commission in 1940 from the U.S. Maritime Commission for a large painted panel. He soon began to gain a reputation as a leading California Abstract Expressionist, and in 1947 he was hired by the California College of Arts and Crafts as a professor of painting. He also taught for a time at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Karl Baumann was a member of and exhibited with the California Water Color Society and the San Francisco Art Association. His work was included in the Golden Gate International Exposition in 1939 and solo exhibitions of his work were mounted at the San Francisco Museum of Art in 1945 and 1949; the La Jolla Art Center in 1947; the City of Paris Department Store in San Francisco in 1956; and the Lucien Labaudt Gallery in San Francisco in 1957.

In 1974, Baumann was diagnosed with terminal cancer and was given six months to live. However, he went into remission after a debilitating treatment and within two years he was cancer free. He was active until May of 1976 when the sudden death of his son ended his desire to paint. Karl Baumann died on 30 January 1984 in San Francisco, California.