Notes Chamberlain in In a Modern Rendering: The Color Woodcuts of Gustave Baumann, this abstract imagery relates to the pictographs shown in Baumann's woodcut "The Deer Hunt" of 1919 (Chamberlain cat. 64) or those in his book Frijoles Canyon Pictographs, 1939 (cat. 348). According to his daughter Ann, Baumann remarked that this image would appeal only to his psychologist friends.
"Hidden Meaning" was the last of Baumann's editioned color woodcuts, carved and printed at age 80.