FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
HANNELORE BARON: WORKS FROM 1969 TO 1987
June 29 – July 31, 2004
Reception: June 29, 5-7pm
The University Art Museum, located in the Steve & Nini Horn Center on the campus of California State University, Long Beach
1250 Bellflower Boulevard, Long Beach, CA 90840
Contact: Sarah G. Vinci, Director of Publications and Publicc Relations, (562) 985-4299 / <svinci@csulb.edu>
562.985.5761, Fax 562.985.7602
Web site, <http://www.csulb.edu/uam>
E-mail, <uam@csulb.edu>
SUMMER HOURS: Tuesday – Friday 12-5, Saturday 11-4, Closed Sunday, Monday, and University Holidays.
A portfolio sampling of artist’s exhibition may be viewed at the Museum's Web site,
<http://artscenecal.com/Images/GalleryPages0604/HaBaronIB.html>
Hannelore Baron, “Untitled”, 1981, paper fabric and ink.
SMITHSONIAN EXHIBIT OF REKNOWNED COLLAGE ARTIST HANNELORE BARON AT UAM
Using materials that felt familiar—scraps of fabric, wood, string, wire, pieces from children’s games, printed labels and other discarded items—artist Hannelore Baron (1926-1987) constructed intimately scaled works that offer glimpses into history, the human condition and the artist’s past. The Smithsonian Institution exhibition Hannelore Baron: Works from 1969 to 1987 opens at the University Art Museum on June 29, 2004 and continues through July 31.
Approximately 40 collages and five box assemblages are presented along with quotes from Baron (1926-1987) illuminating her artistic inspirations and creative processes. In her struggles with depression, with cancer, and with memories of the Holocaust, Baron found more than solace in her art. She found a fountain of creativity with which she could explore feelings and ideas that words could not express. She gathered artistic inspiration not only from her own past and existential beliefs, but also from contemporary events such as the Vietnam War, and other artistic sources including American Indian art, African art, Tantric art, illuminated pages of the Koran, and Persian miniatures. “The materials I use in the box constructions and cloth collages are gathered with great care,” said Baron. “The reason I use old cloth and boxes is that the new material lacks the sentiment of the old, and seems too dry in an emotional sense.”
Baron, born in 1926 in Dillingen, Germany, has become renowned for the highly personal, intimately sized abstract collages and box constructions that she began exhibiting in the late 1960s. Her works from this time through 1987 (the year of her death) garnered her a reputation as a master of the collage medium. During her life, the ideas expressed in her work grew more complex, introspective and personal, while at the same time they communicated a universal message about nationalism, war and cruelty.
Unrecognized during most of Baron’s life, her work can now be found in numerous museum collections, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
Hannelore Baron: Works from 1969 to 1987 is organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) in cooperation with the Estate of Hannelore Baron and the Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles. The exhibition is curated by art historian, and writer Ingrid Schaffner. “Current interest in issues of personal identity and themes of memory (the Jewish Holocaust from which her family escaped, and cancer), bring a new appreciation for Baron’s collage,” said Schaffner. “It is interesting to note that her collage boxes usually involve a lid that shuts the contents from view. This self-effacing gesture, also an act of preservation, seems typical of Baron in a way that also suggests why she did not command greater public renown during her lifetime.”
A full-color catalogue has been published in conjunction with the tour, and will be available at the University Art Museum. The catalogue was made possible through the generous support of The Judith Rothschild Foundation, Ruth and Robert Halperin, Ruth and Barney O’Hara, The Jamie and Steve Tisch Foundation, Mary Mhoon, and The Howard Earl Rachofsky Foundation. The exhibition is supported at the UAM by the Chais Family Foundation, the Bess J. Hodges Foundation, the Instructionally Related Activities Fund, the college of the Arts, CSULB, and the Public Corporation for the Arts and City of Long Beach. Each year, the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) shares the wealth of Smithsonian collections and research programs with millions of people outside of Washington, D.C. One of the Smithsonian's four National Programs, SITES makes available a wide range of exhibitions about art, science, and history, which are shown not only in museums but wherever people live, work, and play: in libraries, science centers, historical societies, community centers, botanical gardens, schools, and shopping malls. In 2002, SITES celebrated 50 years of connecting Americans to their shared cultural heritage. Exhibition descriptions and tour schedules are available at www.si.edu/sites.
ENTRANCE FEES:
The University Art Museum entrance fee is $4.00 for adults and children over 12 years of age. It is free to UAM members, CSULB students, staff, and faculty.
LOCATION:
The UAM is located on the campus of California State University, Long Beach, in the Steve and Nini Horn Center, (formerly called the North Campus Center).
DIRECTIONS:
From the 405, 605, and 22 Freeways, exit 7th Street/22 West. Turn right on Bellflower Boulevard and right on State University Drive. Turn left on Merriam Way. Metered parking is available on the right in Lot 17. Permits are required for all other areas and can be purchased at the yellow dispensers located in the parking structure and throughout the parking lots.
