Marshall Baron

Marshall Baron was born on August 3 1934 in Bulawayo, Rhodesia. He received his high school education in Zimbabwe and later moved to Cape Town in South Africa to study law. He excelled in three fields: Law, Art and Music.
Law:
He had an L.L.B law degree which he attained in Cape Town, South Africa (1951-56), practised law at Ben Baron and Partners in Bulawayo from 1957. He was successful in law and gained an enviable reputation, as a practising lawyer he carried the struggle for a more egalitarian society into the law courts.
Art:
He was very active and influential in the local art world and was a member and chairman of the Rhodesian Society of Artists. His career into art came into the light with the first of many exhibitions in 1954. Baron was a serious and prolific artist who painted hundreds of canvasses of all sizes and his works were exhibited in one-man and group shows in Rhodesia and South Africa.
Music:
His knowledge and appreciation of music was encyclopedic and profound and his impact on the musical life of Bulawayo was incalculable. He was the music critic for the Chronicle Newspaper in Bulawayo from 1962. His regular critiques in The Chronicle on concerts and on performances of visiting musicians of international repute were literally masterpieces.
A Chronicle of Marshall Baron:

• 1934-Born on 3rd August in Bulawayo, Rhodesia to Rachel and Ben Baron.
• 1945-Having shown an unusual interest and delight in music from a very early age, formed a music appreciation club to learn about famous composers and classical music.
• 1948- Started to paint.
• 1949-Matriculated with 5 distinctions at Milton High School, Bulawayo.
• 1951-Awarded a Beit Scholarship and a Southern Rhodesia Scholarship to study at university.
• 1951-Won a Rhodes Trustees Literary Prize for an essay about the musician Sibelius.
• 1951-1956-Studied at Cape Town University, South Africa for B.A. L.L.B. degree. Elected to Students Representative Council and was Chairman of N.U.S.A.S. (The National Union of South African Students). Principal of Night School at Retreat run by students for deprived Coloured and African people including serving on the executive of the Cape Non-Europeans Night School Association. It was there that his over-riding concern and compassion manifested for the suffering and under privileged of all races, colours and creeds. He was gentle and hated violence and became an ardent and outspoken opponent and critic of racialism, oppression and injustice – characteristics which were to dominate his life. He organized a Musical Appreciation Club at Smuts Residence Hall at the university.
• 1954-Commenced exhibiting his paintings regularly in Southern Africa.
• 1957-Graduated and began practising as a lawyer in the legal firm of Ben Baron and Partners in Bulawayo.
• 1960-1986-Art Exhibitions: Had 11 One Man Exhibitions of his paintings in Bulawayo, Salisbury, Johannesburg, Pretoria, 3 of which were retrospective exhibitions after his death; 5 exhibitions with 1-4 other artists and his works were exhibited on all the National Gallery of Rhodesia Annual Exhibitions in Salisbury and Bulawayo; and on all the Rhodesian Society of Artists’ Exhibitions from 1968-1976.
• 1969 and 1970-Works purchased by the National Gallery of Rhodesia for Permanent Collection.
• 1962-1977-Was Music Critic for the Bulawayo newspaper The Chronicle
• 1966-1968-The late Ben Shahn, a world renowned American artist and a 1st cousin of Marhsall’s father, was most impressed with his artistic talent and awarded him a scholarship for three consecutive years to the Annual Young Artists Summer School at Sknowhegan in Maine, America.
• 1967-Featured in Critique, a television programme dealing with aspects of the arts, produced in Bulawayo and became sought after as a public speaker.
• 1968-Founder member of the Rhodesian Society of Artists and subsequent Chairman in 1976. Each year also attended the Annual Camp of the National Music Camp Association of which he was a committee member.
• 1972-Designed and executed original sets for the ballet “Nnogawuse”.
• 1974-In the 1970’s played an active role in the liberal Central African Party and Centre Party and stood as an independent candidate for the Matobo constitutency in the General Election in 1974.
• 1977-Died suddenly on 3rd May in Bulawayo at the age of 42.

Hobbies:
He pursued the study of music and art as hobbies
Recreations:
Mountaineering, long distance running, yoga and he read profusely on many subjects including a study of Comparative Religions in later years