Addendum to Illuminations: the Art of Samuel

2015 ADDENDUM 1 I LLUMINATIONS The Art of Samuel Bak Facing History and Ourselves www.facinghistory.org Study for Micro and Macro his painting might just as easily have been called “Search for Explanations,” beginning with our own quest for the source of the creative urge that prompted Bak to identify the fatal fruit of Eden as a pear instead of an apple. Since the Book of Genesis refers Tonly to “the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil,” Bak was free to shift his viewers’ consciousness from the all-too familiar symbol of an apple to the unsettling vision of a sus- pended half-eaten pear. This fresh metaphor then becomes less a reminder of original sin than of the legacy of an imperfect world, whose symmetry and harmony have been marred by some vast unseen contagion in the universe—the object of Adam’s search —or a tiny hidden defect in the flawless pear that Eve holds in her hand. The telescope and the magnifying glass are the instruments of their inquiry, but we are not made privy to the results of their investigation. Certainly they are not destined to travel far with the rickety vehicle on which Adam stands. Is human life itself an ongoing hunt for an understanding of the mystery that makes the social and moral ideals of civi- lization unreachable goals? Astronomy and nanotechnology are the two disciplines behind the activity of Adam and Eve in this work, and perhaps merely striving to know more is a sufficient virtue, one that the painting celebrates. It is called a “study,” and its subject is “studying,” which declares its artistic mission and the challenge to its audience. Adam ignores and Eve is shielded from the eaten fruit, the curse of original sin, and perhaps this is enough to liberate them from a theological burden into a secular world that encourages knowing rather than guilt. Accepting the rewards and the limits of this pursuit may be enough to justify their difficult existence. Study for Micro and Macro, 2010 Mixed media, 25 ½ x 19 ¾” 2 2015 ADDENDUM Adam and Eve and the Arduous Road hen Adam and Eve begin their journey in Genesis “eastward of Eden” after their expulsion from Paradise, they have no clue about what lies before them. Loom- ing above Eve’s head in this painting is a hanging pear, Bak’s version of the for- biddenW fruit whose “mortal taste,” as Milton reminds us in Paradise Lost, “brought death into the world and all our woe.” But who could have foreseen the variety of woes that mankind would encounter as it pursued its voyage from biblical narrative to the modern era? We would like to see the expression on Adam’s face as he beholds the landscape of disaster before him, but the artist prefers to let our imagination conjure up the look of bewilderment and despair that clouds his vision as he wonders where his next step might lead him. Unlike Adam, Eve turns toward us, apparently holding an infant in her arms, though her expression is no clearer than her husband’s. Milton had told us that as they left their idyllic garden, “The world lay all before them, where to choose/Their place of rest, and Providence their guide,” but such consolations seem to have vanished from Bak’s scene. We see instead a broken signpost offering blank information, its wooden triangles pointing in opposite direc- tions—no help at all. Is that blanket of pears intended as a source of nourishment or a reminder of past transgressions? There are no clear answers to the ambiguous questions that this work raises, but there are hints that lead us toward some visual and mental clar- ity. The splintered pole of the signpost forms the Hebrew letter “vov,” while the wooden panels attached to it may be read as the letter “gimel”— the “v” and “g” that represent Bak’s traditional signature for the Vilna Ghetto. The smoke and flames in the distance, and the twin chimneys dimly visible beneath them, evoke a holocaust that neither God nor his human creations had envisaged at the birth of the expulsion legend. But it hovers on the horizon, casting an ironic shadow over the Miltonic idea Adam and Eve and the Arduous Road, 2010 Oil on canvas, 18 x 24” that these travelers might ultimately choose their place of rest, with Providence their guide. 2015 ADDENDUM 3 Suggestions ith its surface drained of all color, the pencil sketch of Suggestions leaves us with a triple portrait in black and white, a trio of flag-waving orthodox Jewish enthusi- asts who, because of the unity of shading, blend in with their surroundings. They appearW to be posed behind each other, and as with so many other works in the series From Generation to Generation, the dominant lead figure towers over the other two, who because of their smaller stature seem to be his supporters or successors rather than his equals. Has the passage of time (as the series title implies) reduced their status in the world of religious ortho- doxy? One of them, a kipa-clad subordinate, must stand on a flimsy wooden crate to escalate his presence. They wave fragments of banners in celebration of a ritual we cannot understand, while their leader alone pronounces a blessing over invisible multitudes–if they exist. But since the torn banners are striped, like the flag of Israel and the garments of concentrator camp inmates, maybe we are witnessing a ritual of mourn- ing rather than a celebration, a blessing in commem- oration of the dead. One of the unique features of numerous Bak creations is the absence rather than the presence of meaning, leaving to the viewer the task of identifying the activity represented by the artist’s vision. Spread across the foreground of the sketch are barely discernible open volumes, presum- ably filled with ancient Jewish lore that would help us to interpret the religious roles of the sages before us. But like so much else in the drawing, we have no clue as to their content. Although the work’s title, Suggestions, may offer a playful hint from the artist, it is also an open invitation to his audience to pro- vide their own analysis of what they see. The pos- sibilities then become limitless, the boldest among being that the hand gesture is not a blessing but a greeting: perhaps our three Jewish holy men are rejoicing at the fulfillment of a sacred prophecy— they are welcoming the arrival of the Messiah. Suggestions, 2015 Pencil, 14 x 11” 4 2015 ADDENDUM Study for Today’s Candlelight hylacteries (or tefillin) are small square leather boxes containing brief biblical verses that observant Jewish men attach to their foreheads and left forearms during morning prayers. They are connected to leather thongs that are wound around the arm. In this Ppainting the second leather box is missing, and part of the strap seems engraved on rather than wound around the forearm. Some consultation with historical memory is required to recall that the Germans—could it have been accidental? —chose the same site on which to imprint numbers for the new arrivals in the death camp of Auschwitz. The stripes on the prayer shawl and arm are enough to remind us of this physical violation of human anatomy, and of spiritual identity as well. The purpose of the ebrewH verses is to remind devout Jews to keep God’s law; the Ger- man intention was to mock it. Is the aged praying Jew seeking to purify his soul, to oppose in his mind “today’s candlelight” of the work’s title to the encompassing darkness of the German past? If so, why is the candle misplaced? It should be outside the cup (badly damaged, we note), and the spoons (one also broken) on the inside. The spoons are bound as if imprisoned by a tightly twisted rope, which contrasts with the loose folds of the tefillin’s leather straps, intended to free the spirit and unite it with divine will. The viewer is forced to in- habit both worlds, focusing on a foreground crowded with challenging images and denied the relief, a common feature in many other Bak paintings, of a panoramic landscape and a cerulean sky. Still unresolved is the fi- nal mystery of why candlelight should be for “today”; shouldn’t it rather be for “tonight”? And finally, since this is “just” a “study,” and not the completed version, we are left to wonder what more might be added to endow this complex canvas with further implication. Study for Today’s Candlelight, 2015 Oil on canvas, 12 x 16” 2015 ADDENDUM 5 Study for a Full Cup his blazing variation on the well-known allusion in the 23rd Psalm to a cup that “runneth over,” which traditionally grants praise to the Lord for a surfeit of blessings, here greets the viewer with an unsettling challenge: what if the cup “runneth over” with a Tsurfeit of woe rather than bliss? An incandescent glow bathes the landscape with the heat and flames from a volcanic eruption that has already destroyed all signs of human life. The vacant remains of the buildings that once housed its occupants, with their empty windows that stare at us like blind eyes, intensify the desolation of the scene. Who once dwelt there, and what explains their fate? Bak’s iconography, which includes a giant question mark near the center of the painting, introduces a visual mystery for which there is no easy solution.

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