Leslie Baum at Jan Cicero - Chicago

Art in America, Jan, 2003 by Victor M. Cassidy

When Leslie Baum visits new places--Glasgow, Cordoba or Kew Gardens, for example--she responds to the forms, shapes and colors that she finds there. Collecting these visual materials in her mind--mundane details impress her more than do majestic scenes--she distills, transforms and recombines her original impressions into gorgeous memory pictures. Baum showed 13 acrylic-on-canvas paintings; the works are modest in size, ranging from 24 to 42 inches square. This was the first major solo exhibition for this artist, who has been active in Chicago since 1994.

Baum creates delightful non-realities through her bold use of color. Some Rocks I Know, the Isle of Mull, Scotland combines hot pink, blush pink, dark plum and red. These jarring colors fill the painting with such energy that it seems ready to jump off the wall. In other works, Baum combines two shades of orange, gray and purple, or pale yellow, chocolate brown and light blue. Some dark areas are underpainted with lighter tones, at times revealing a tiny edge that strengthens her draftsmanship and forms.

Once an abstractionist, Baum is edging warily toward landscape. Her scenes have no horizon line or vanishing point and consist of glowing color fields or grounds. On top of these she paints semi-abstract forms. She manipulates the scale and placement of these forms to give the illusion of perspective. Carefully rendered details are the key to these paintings.

To create her color fields, which usually get lighter toward the edges, Baum spills thinned-down acrylic onto a stretched canvas. She may underpaint a work for added luminosity, or intensify portions with a second coat. She then paints sketchy, open framework-like forms that anchor the composition. In the outdoor scenes (roughly half of the works in this show), these forms suggest land or rocks. The shapes become more architectural in the interiors.

Baum also paints flat, solid semi-abstract shapes that suggest foliage, rocks, a floor lamp or tall studio windows with rain running down the outside. Some paintings use shadow, silhouette or reversed imagery. Now and then she inserts realistic images such as a brick building glimpsed through an open window.

This was a breakthrough show. Baum has always painted in roughly the same style, but now she has taken control of her visual language, discovered the secret .of vivifying detail and displayed the self-confidence that comes with success.