The support for this collage is an irregular piece of fabric edged in ink, as fragmentary as the components laid on top of it. A Holocaust survivor who settled in the Bronx, Hannelore Baron adopted the mediums of assemblage and collage. Her materials were hand-dyed papers and fabric scraps, embellished with monoprints made from copperplates, such as the figure with outstretched arms near the center of this composition. Baron’s collages suggest a world just barely held together. Deeply moved by the social upheavals of the 1960s and ‘70s, she described her art as a form of personal protest akin to “the way other people march on Washington, or set themselves on fire.”
Hannelore Baron (1926–1987), Untitled, 1977. Collage of cut colored and printed papers and cloth with pen and ink on cloth, 7 5/8 x 7 7/8 in. (19.4 x 20 cm). Gift of Elise Boisanté and Mark Baron. 2008.12. ©Estate of Hannelore Baron; courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY.