As well as its historic collections the Ashmolean is also home to a collection of contemporary art with six dedicated galleries. Artists represented include Auguste Renoir, Walter Sickert, Maggi Hambling, Howard Hodgkin, Barbara Hepworth and Lucian Freud. Contemporary artists Antony Gormley, Tracey Emin, David Hockney and Rachel Whiteread are also represented in the print collection.
Christiane Baumgartner studied at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst before completing her masters in printing at the Royal College of Art, London. Baumgartner is best known for her monumental woodcuts based on her own film and video stills. Monochromatic and up to several meters long, Baumgartner works with photo-realist exactitude and deals with the concepts of time, motion, velocity and acceleration. The notion of time is also embodied in her artistic process — the lengthy and painstaking medium of the handmade woodcut. Baumgartner first came to attention in the UK at EAST International (2004) and a year later had a major solo exhibition at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham. Baumgartner’s work is in over 30 public collections worldwide.