Hannelore Baron

Born in Germany, Hannelore Baron immigrated to the United States in 1941 and settled in New York City. As Jews in Nazi Germany, the family suffered persecution and the destruction of their home before finally being able to come to America. The traumatic experiences of this period in Baron's life would directly influence her artwork. Using found fragments of wood, paper, and memorabilia, she began to make collages and assemblages in the 1950s. Her first exhibition took place in 1969 and was followed by numerous gallery shows in New York and Europe. Reporting her death in 1987, the New York Times stated: "She had a special feeling for paper, for the weight of communication it can bear and the weight of history that settles so easily on its edges and surfaces. … She used letters as symbols of memory and birds as symbols of vulnerability and the need for song."

National Museum of American Art (CD-ROM) (New York and Washington D.C.: MacMillan Digital in cooperation with the National Museum of American Art, 1996)