Hansen Bahia

Hansen Bahia, born Karl Heinz Hansen (Hamburg, Germany, 1915 – São Paulo, Brazil, 1978), was a German engraver, artist, and writer active in Brazil after 1950. He fought in World War II as a soldier, illustrated children's books after the war, and began working in woodcuts, his primary medium in the late 1940s. He traveled to Brazil in the 1950s, and worked with numerous artists and authors of Salvador, Bahia in the period. He worked in Germany, Ethiopia, and Colombia in the 1960s, and returned to Brazil in 1966. He legally changed his name to Hansen Bahia in 1966. Hansen Bahia moved to the interior of the Brazilian state of Bahia in 1975, and purchased a historic farm with his wife, Ilsa. The couple donated his art, residence, and personal effects to the city of Cachoeira, Bahia; they are housed and displayed in the Hansen Bahia Foundation in Cachoeira.