Hansen Bahia. Sem Título – da série “Lukian, O diálogo das héteras”. 1952
Acrylic on canvas
About the artist
Hansen Bahia was a visual artist born in Hamburg, Germany.
Karl Heinz Hansen, known artistically as Hansen Bahia, worked across many media: woodcut — for which he is best known — sculpture, painting, illustration, poetry, writing and film. He began his career in the 1940s in his native country, emigrating to Brazil in 1950 and settling first in São Paulo. In 1955 he moved to Salvador, Bahia, where he fell for the local culture and adopted the artistic name “Hansen Bahia”. In Bahia he made a series of woodcuts and illustrations depicting the everyday life and customs of the region.
His activity was prolific, including as a teacher. Between 1963 and 1966 he lived in Ethiopia, where he founded a woodcut course at the School of Fine Arts in Addis Ababa. He returned to Brazil in 1966 and took the chair of printmaking at the Federal University of Bahia, also teaching at the University of Bogotá and the School of Fine Arts in Belo Horizonte. In his will, Hansen left his work to Bahia, establishing the Fundação Hansen Bahia to preserve and disseminate his legacy. German by birth but Brazilian and Bahian at heart, he remains one of the great printmakers of this land, and a name still deserving wider recognition in Brazilian art.