Samuel Bak

Samuel Bak

USA, b. Lithuania, 1933 
The Acceptance 
1977
Pastel and oil on paper laid on canvas 
Gift of Jack and Marilyn (z”l) Belz and family, 9204

Born in Vilna (Vilnius) in 1933, Samuel Bak showed artistic talent from a young age. His first exhibition took place in the Vilna Ghetto, which was established shortly after the Nazi invasion of Lithuania in 1941. Bak completed this painting, which is part of a larger series titled “Landscapes of Jewish History,” while living in New York. Eschewing the abstract-expressionist aesthetic he had previously cultivated, Bak began to develop a surreal, yet distinctly representational approach, reconfiguring age-old Jewish motifs in jarring, unexpected ways as a metaphor for the spiritual brokenness of the post-Holocaust world.

Commenting on the symbolic meaning of the Ten Commandments in his work, Bak explained: “They mark the identity of the people chosen to be a ‘Light Unto the Nations’—a people struggling with their commitment to God in the face of repeated persecution … The first Tablets were smashed against the rocks in an act of rage. But anger and hatred have continued to be the cause of their destruction down through the ages” (Bak, Landscapes of Jewish History).

Literature:

Bak, Samuel. Landscapes of Jewish History. New York: Aberbach Fine Art, 1978.
Nolan Fewell, Danna, Gary A. Phillips, and Yvonne Sherwood. Representing the Irreparable: The Shoah, the Bible, and the Art of Samuel Bak. Boston: Pucker Art Publications, 2008.