From Generation to Generation: New Paintings by Samuel Bak
When:
Saturday, Apr 16, 2016 10:00a -
Sunday, May 29, 2016 5:30p
Saturday, Apr 16, 2016 10:00a -
Sunday, May 29, 2016 5:30p
Where:
Pucker Gallery
240 Newbury St, 3rd floor
Boston, MA 02116
Admission:
Unknown
Categories:
Art
Event website:
http://www.puckergallery.com/
16 April – 29 May 2016
Please join us for the Public Opening on 16 April 2016 from 3:00 – 6:00 PM. The artist will be present.
Spring Open House and Gallery Talk (ArtWeek Boston event): 30 April 2016 from 2:00 – 5:00 PM.
This collection of paintings by Samuel Bak explores the passing along of tradition through the image of the Rabbi. Samuel Bak was born on August 12, 1933 in Vilna, Poland at a crucial moment in modern history. From 1940 to 1944, Vilna was under first Soviet, then German occupation. Bak's artistic talent was first recognized during an exhibition of his work in the Ghetto of Vilna when he was nine. While both he and his mother survived, his father and four grandparents all perished at the hands of the Nazis. At the end of World War II, he and his mother fled to the Landsberg Displaced Persons Camp. Here, he was enrolled in painting lessons at the Blocherer School, Munich. In 1948 they immigrated to the newly established state of Israel. He studied at the Bezalel Art School in Jerusalem and completed his mandatory service in the Israeli army. In 1956 he went to Paris where he continued his studies at the École des Beaux Arts. He received a grant from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation to pursue his studies. Continue reading his biography here: http://www.puckergallery.com/artists/bak_index/bak_bio.html
"We are charged by the Passover Haggadah to tell our children the story of the Exodus. It is a principal founding narrative of the Jewish people: 'We were slaves in Egypt, and led by Moses and aided by divine guidance, we made the journey to the Promised Land.' We are urged to rehearse this episode annually and to pass it on “midor ledor” (from generation to generation) so that it will never be forgotten. […] By now we should realize that the paintings in From Generation to Generation do not represent scenarios of Jewish experience isolated from each other but moments from the chronicle of the children of Israel that speak to each other in a kind of visual drama whose overlapping scenes and acts propel us towards an elusive dénouement." – Lawrence L. Langer (Alumnae Chair Professor of English emeritus at Simmons College in Boston)
