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PARTISAN REVIEW
These judgments may rest in part on a uniquely challenging aspect of
Salomon's work: she fits into no recognized artistic category. Although
she often made stylistic or figurative references to other artists, she fore–
closed every avenue of artistic similarity by her independence and orig–
inal expression. Salomon didn't join, and posthumously doesn 't belong
to, any school or category. She had no artistic mentors or confreres-no
group of talented friends or enemies-whom history honors. In her
work, one can discern signs of the future art of the I960s through the
I990s-the monomaniacal word art of Jenny Holzer; the repetitious
imagery of Andy Warhol or Gilbert and George; or the fixation on self
in the manipulated identities of Cindy Sherman. Salomon's experimen–
tation, however, never exceeded the boundaries of 8 x 10 gouache paint–
ings. And into a continuous, repetitive and conventional format, she
placed the unconventional substance of her work, which doesn't
respond to any historical theme or embellish any established mytholo–
gies. Moreover, her work doesn't carry the slightest tinge of commercial
value. Since only a handful of the paintings are available on the art mar–
ket, they don't entice the collector, whether it be a museum or individ–
ual. Salomon doesn't belong to any place or nation-not to Berlin, the
city where she grew up and that threw her out; not to the South of
France, where she created her work, but from where she was sent off to
Poland; and not to The Netherlands, where her work found a perma–
nent home, but which she had never seen . Unlike Anne Frank, Salomon
will never be a Dutch icon.
All of these factors relate to the background and aura surrounding
Salomon's work. But there are other complicating limitations in the
direct confrontation with Salomon's art that also discourage interest.
Salomon's work demands intense concentration and a new way of look–
ing and thinking about art. For by design and instinct, Salomon moved
her art back and forth between reality and fantasy, history and reinven–
tion, memories and reenactments, secrets and lies, humor and pathos,
sardonic spoofing and profound thought, unfulfilled desires and needs,
hurts, failures, hopes and loves. She evoked the searing history of a
tragic family, personal isolation, and uncertainties about her strengths
and stability, and the tortured times of Jewish life in Europe between the
two world wars. A family suffering from emotional illnesses and sui–
cides. A child desperately wanting but lacking affection-unsure of her–
self, jealous of others, confused, and unhappy. An adolescent looking
for recognition, inspiration, direction, spiritual and physical love. A
European woman armed with enlightened intellectual and cultural tools
of art, philosophy, music, psychoanalytic thought, and religion. A
