Byron Randall (1918-1999)
Born in Tacoma, Washington, in 1918,
Byron Randall was raised in Salem, Oregon, where he worked as a waiter,
harvest hand, boxer, and cook for the Marion County jail to finance his
art career. When Randall was 21 years old, a solo show at the Whyte
Gallery in Washington D.C. brought his work to national critical
attention and launched his professional career. That show was followed
by others in Oregon, New York, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Chicago,
Seattle, Toronto, Montreal, Edinburgh and Inverness, Scotland.
His
first wife was Helen Nelson, a young left-wing Canadian sculptor, whom
he met at the Salem Art Center, while attending her classes in
sculpture. Her impact on his life was profound: she was responsible for
sharpening his commitment to social and trade union activism, and her
belief in his talent provided vital support for the fledgling artist.
In
1940 they married and moved to Mexico for six months, where they had a
child, Gale, and where Randall continued to develop as a painter,
inspired by the vibrant landscape and people, and by the work of the
Mexican muralists. During the Second World War years, while Randall
served in the Merchant Marines, he continued to paint whenever
possible. His experiences in the South Pacific influenced his
preference for natural forms and bright colours.
After the War,
Byron and Helen settled in the North Beach area of San Francisco where
they had a second child, Jonathan, in 1948. Five years later they left
the United States for Canada, driven by the need to escape from the
rampant anti-Communism of the time. In 1956 Helen was killed by a car
while crossing the road with her young son. Randall and his children
returned to San Francisco where he met and married the print-maker and
muralist Emmy Lou Packard. Between 1959 and 1968 Randall and Packard
ran a Guest House and Art Gallery in Mendocino, California, a small
former logging town located on the coast 140 miles north of San
Francisco. Randall and Packard were political and environmental
activists as well as artists during the 1960s, active in the campaign
to protect the area from commercial exploitation and despoliation and
in the creation of the Peace and Freedom Party.
After the end of
their marriage in 1970, Randall established a guesthouse, studio and
gallery space in Tomales, California. In 1982 he married Eve Wieland,
an Austrian wartime emigre. She was his wife until her death from
cancer four years later. For the last nine years of his life Randall's
partner was Pele de Lappe, a graphic artist and friend of some 50 years
standing. Byron Randall died in August 1999 at the age of 80.
