1962 The San Francisco Examiner PICTORIAL LIVING. When three of the four artists returned to San Francisco, their sketches inspired paintings. The San Francisco Examiner’s headline “How Six Bay Eyes Saw Mexico” did not include the fourth artist, Willi Baum. Because at that time, Willi was back in Mexico, in San Miguel, where he was designing a mural there. So Willi was not shown in the photo with the Examiner’s story.
Sept/Oct 1962 Communicating Arts Magazine
Here also, are six pages showing the art and it includes the written comments from the artists. (The sketch that you see at the bottom of each page was a fifteen-foot long, 360-degree drawing that Earl Thollander made as he viewed the complete row of buildings surrounding the open square where the artists were sketching.
On November 7, 1962, there was an exhibition of sketches and paintings that were a result of the trip. It was held at the Art Unlimited Gallery in San Francisco. The gallery was accessed from the ground floor and then a strait staircase down to a basement. Willi had recently returned from San Miguel, but on the night of the gallery show, he appeared in a wheelchair at the top of the long flight of stairs. The crowd showed concern about Willi’s condition and worried how he planned to get to the lower level. Then, following his plan in “making an entrance” he stood up from the wheelchair and casually descended the stairs!
Not long after that occasion, Bill established a studio in New York. As a member of the Society of Illustrators, there, he received and awarded award of merit with his painting developed from one of his sketches from the trip in Mexico (the last of the images that you see above). The four amigos, together Other sketch trips followed. Each of the four produced more and more paintings, beyond their commercial work.
Ann Thompson