Perhaps it never was....

Marshall Baron, who passed away in Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) on May 3^rd 1977 at the age of 42, was a man of wide-ranging talents and interests. Aside from his work as a lawyer and political activist, he was also in- house music critic for the Bulawayo Chronicle. But it is perhaps as a painter that he will be best remembered. Examples of his work are to be found in the collection of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe and in private collections throughout the world.

A recent retrospective of his paintings held in Tel Aviv at the Gebo Art Gallery, America House, celebrated his achievements as an artist. On view were 25 works in acrylic or oils on canvas or board dating from the 1960s and early 1970s. These pictures were selected from 90 works in Israeli collections.

Although Baron was largely self-taught, he traveled widely and was well acquainted with current trends in painting. However, a key element in his development as an artist was undoubtedly his exposure to Abstract Expressionism, the home-bred style dominating American painting in the 1960s. This came about between 1966-68, when Baron attended three consecutive Summer Schools at Skowhegan, Maine, a prestigious teaching facility where the staff and visiting lecturers were major artists of the time. Commenting on this experience, he said that it "reinforced my feeling that abstractionism is for me ….I find it infinitely challenging to make the paint work out its own statements without falling back on imagery."

Whilst one cannot pinpoint the exact influences which enriched Baron's painterly language, they appear to be drawn from various proponents of this style. One thinks in particular of William de Kooning and the dream-like fragments of reality found in his paintings; Hans Hoffman, whose canvases were characterized by thickly textured strokes alternate with delicate swirls; and Jackson Pollock and his famous dripped canvases in which every element was given equal emphasis.

To an eye accustomed to the restrained, lyrical character of the New Horizons school of abstract painting which prevailed in Israeli art of the mid-20^th century, American abstraction in general, and Baron's paintings in particular, anchored in the African landscape, come across as foreign and exotic. This is true even of Baron's medium-format paintings from the 1960s when he was still in search of a definitive style. Here one found heavily pigmented canvases whose earthy coloration, incised surface markings and large shadowy forms appear to make reference to animal life, stones and rock formations.

Undoubtedly, the best works in the exhibition date from the 1970s when Baron had succeeded in the task that every abstract expressionist painter sets himself: namely, the total expression of his feelings in order to create something exclusively his own. In Baron's case, it is the input of his personality and intellect, knowledge of literature and mythology that makes his work unique. These large-format 'mature' paintings are either a riot of color, or else employ a single shade like midnight blue or 'greengage' yellow to set the tone for the whole composition. The brushwork is much freer than in the past, yet there is evidence of the sound organization of shapes and colors. Baron now lets his imagination run free and despite the tendency towards complete abstraction, one can often invent a story-line for his works, abetted by his whimsical or thoughtful titles which offer a starting point for the viewer to set out on his own path of thinking and dreaming.

Touches of humor illuminate several of Baron's compositions. For example, in Christopher Robin's Vespers, (title and painting inspired by A.A. Milne's poem), a child bathed in a golden aura is suspended on high, looking down on his bedroom, its furnishings and his games. A bright red flower (perhaps the flame-lily, once the symbol of Rhodesia) is located at the bottom of the picture. Above it are patches of deep blue paint possibly representing "Nanny's beautiful blue dressing gown hanging on the door".

Baron listened to music while he worked. Consequently, it is not a hard step to link the unexpected juxtaposition of colors and shapes in some of his paintings with syncopated musical rhythms. Sometimes, it seems that a certain painting was inspired by a specific piece of music (but this only a supposition). For instance, Perhaps It Never Was, a golden and ochre landscape suffused with the light of a great white sun might well be a visual expression of the Morning movement from Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite.

Summer Exposure II, painted six years before his death, was among those works that deserved special attention. This is a multi-colored composition brimming over with vitality. Packed tight with overlapping abstract shapes which mingle with the jagged contours of flora and fauna, every form is ringed around with sunshine yellow paint. This work, perhaps more than any other in this captivating exhibition, seems to express Marshall Baron's love of painting and his admiration of the beauty of Nature in his part of the world.

This exhibition, organized by Merle Guttmann and Beverly Caplan, Baron's two sisters living in Israel, was curated by Marlene Ferrer and Johanan Herson. Altogether, Merle has located worldwide some 200 paintings by Baron (and there are probably many more). Many of these images, together with press-cuttings and biographical material, already appear in the website currently being set up in his memory at www.marshallbaron.com