Press release

Jack Baron’s Tapestries Return to the Custom House for International Museum Day

In February of 2003 Jack Baron’s one man show, Baron en Pointe, featuring more than 30 tapestries as well as other works, drew a record 450 people to the opening reception at the Custom House. “It was the Key’s tribute to an extremely well-liked and well-respected artist,” said Claudia Pennington, executive director of the Key West Art & Historical Society.
Jack Baron passed away in January of this year. His collection returns to the Custom House in conjunction with International Museum Day, Wednesday, May 18th.
“Museums Bridging Cultures, this year’s theme for International Museum Day, seemed an ideal time to emphasize the multi-cultural work of Key West artists Jack Baron and Mario Sanchez whose show “Listening to Our Ancestors” is currently on exhibit. From Sanchez’s multi-cultural street scenes to Baron’s “Key West blacks” we feel very fortunate to be able to bring these two shows together under one roof,” said Claudia Pennington.
Though Baron and Sanchez had very different styles, they shared a common thread in depicting the community in which they lived. Jack Baron’s vantage point was Carrie’s Notions, an antiques shop he and Bob Burton, his partner of 51 years, opened when they moved to Key West in 1979. Located at the corner of Truman and Windsor Lane, the shop was nestled in a predominantly black neighborhood. Baron began painting the people who waited at the bus stop out front. For him, painting Key West’s black residents wasn’t about politics or race, he saw them simply as fascinating subjects. “Of course black people aren’t really black and white people aren’t really white,” he said. “I see dark people as wonderful shades of eggplant purple.”
Almost Haitian in appearance, his aubergine women, whom he admitted were his best work, burst from their canvases with fierce eyes and smiling red mouths dressed in large hats and flowing dresses. His thousands of works feature roosters, fish, chickens, and of course, Key West cats tucked here and there.
Jack Baron didn’t begin painting until 1977 when Burton gave him a set of acrylic paints for his birthday. After the couple moved to Key West, Baron painted in the back room of Carrie’s Notions where friends often gathered to chat. Baron’s impish humor wove through his conversation in much the same way it weaves through his work. One such visitor, Key West artist Bob Franke discovered him there and delighted by his style, encouraged him to continue painting. Also of great inspiration was local artist Van Eno whose intricate whimsical works were much admired by Baron. Still, Baron’s paintings might have remained in the homes of friends had not Marion Stevens, a patron of Haitian art walked through the door of Carrie’s Notions and instantly recognized the work of a true folk artist. Two years later she would arrange his first sell-out show of 30 paintings and Baron’s life would change forever. Baron’s now famous tapestries were the natural union of his love of needlework and painting. Originally he worked small cushion designs until a friend suggested he make a needlepoint of one of his paintings. Soon he was recreating his favorite paintings in needlework, covering the walls of the home Baron and Burton shared.
Jack Baron is now recognized as one of Florida’s finest folk artists. He appears in Carol Seller’s definitive art history volume, “20th Century American Folk Art, Self-Taught and Outsider Art”. One of his paintings was included in the art tome, “Imaging The World,” along with Pablo Picasso’s Guernica and other works. His paintings and tapestries hang in hundreds of homes in Key West and all over the world.
The Key West Art & Historical Society will offer half price admission to the Custom House, Fort East Martello, and Lighthouse museums on International Museum Day, Wednesday, May 18, 2005.

If you are a member of the media and would like to receive more information and/or pictures, please contact: communications@kwahs.org