Hannelore Baron

Hannelore Baron [1926-1987] was a German born artist.  I first became aware of her work accidently when looking at Joseph Cornell boxes in a modern art book. After fleeing Nazi occupied Germany in 1939 she settled in New York and began voicing her own statements through her art. Her collection of boxes and collages embodies her personal and some very traumatic experiences. She used her work to express her feelings of depression and anxiety yet her simple thread and paper structures encompass a very delicate handmade quality. By simplifying lines, textures, shapes and forms, Hannelore has arranged small off cuts of fabric, found objects and paper to relate her stories and express her narrative. I find her work moving.  One box that displays striped fabric through a glass lid, that is similar to those incarcerated in the prison camps during World War two is very powerful without reading any accompanying information. Her work has often been compared to Joseph Cornell’s, Kurt Schwitter’s and Robert Rauschenberg’s but I personally have found it refreshing and uncomplicated to that of the other artists.