TEL AVIV.- "A Painter who Begins at the End," was the title of a review in Yedioth Ahronoth in August 1959, following the opening of Hagit Lalo's first solo exhibition at Katz Gallery, Tel Aviv. The title was taken from the artist's own remarks, in which she explained that she had never shifted from figurative to abstract painting, but rather—began directly "at the end." Lalo's approach, regarding abstract as "the end," the epitome of artistic development, was rooted in the perception of modern painting prevalent in her time.

Born in Petach Tikva (1931), Lalo left in the early 1950s for studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She earned her MA, graduated with honors, and won a scholarship to the Hans Hofmann School of Fine Arts in Provincetown, Massachusetts. She returned to Israel eight years later, and tried to find her place on the Israeli art scene, but remained trapped between "here" and "there."

On the one hand, she staged two solo exhibitions, participated in several group shows, and received favorable reviews in the press. On the other hand, she tried in vain to be accepted into the leading art groups of her time, such as New Horizons. Although 1959 was the year of a break in the history of abstract painting in Israel, New Horizons was still the predominant group, and its artistic style was the so-called Lyrical Abstraction, which drew primarily on Parisian trends, and was still considered the "right" kind of abstraction. Lalo brought a style all her own with her—abstract expressionism with vivid, absolute colors, primarily influenced by American Abstract Expressionism.

Hagit Lalo the woman was a seventh generation Israeli and the great-granddaughter of Yoel Moshe Salomon, but Hagit Lalo the artist was "born" in the USA, and her language and terms were drawn from another world, largely unknown in Israel. From current perspective, Lalo's rejection by New Horizons and her sense of foreignness became an advantage of marginality. Who knows what would have happened to her fierce colors had she been swallowed into this or that group of artists.

Today, Lalo is remembered as a one-woman school, the harbinger of a different painting style, who within a mere two years came to be considered an intellectual, avant-garde artist, a painter who begins at the end, which is the beginning of the next line.

Hagit Lalo passed away in Tel Aviv in 1961, before her 30th birthday.