Title: Too soon the night 1968
Title: unknown
Title: Family tree 1 1955
Samuel Bak was born on August 12, 1933 in Vilna Vilnius), at a crucial moment in modern history, in which fateful events lay ahead for this century.
Bak's talent was first recognized during an exhibition of his works in the Ghetto of Vilna when he was nine. After the end of World War II, he was placed in the Landsberg Displaced Persons Camp. At this time, he was enrolled in painting lessons at the Blocherer School, Munich. In 1948, he immigrated to the newly established state of Israel. After completing both his studies at Bezalel Art School in Jerusalem and his army service, he went to Paris in 1956. There he continued his studies at l'�cole des Beaux Arts. He received a grant from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation to pursue his studies.
In 1959, he moved to Rome where his first exhibition of abstract paintings met with considerable success. In 1961, he was invited to exhibit at the "Carnegie International" in Pittsburgh. And, in 1963 two one-man exhibitions were held at the Jerusalem and Tel Aviv Museums. It was subsequent to these exhibitions, during the years 1963-1964, that a major change in his art occurred. There was a distinct shift from abstract forms to a metaphysical figurative means of expression. Ultimately, this transformation crystallized into his present pictorial language.
From 1959-1991 Samuel Bak had over 60 solo exhibitions at private galleries in New York, Boston, London, Paris, Berlin, Munich, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Rome, and other cities around the world.
Since 1979, large retrospective exhibitions have been held in the Museums of Heidelberg, Nuremberg, Bonn, D�sseldorf, Esslingen, Wiesbaden, Landau, Braunschweig, and Bamberg. A special exhibit entitled "Bak and D�rer" was shown at the Historic D�rer House in Nuremberg in 1989. In 1993, an exhibition of studies for the Landscapes of Jewish Experience theme and a part of the completed paintings was shown at the Jewish Museum in Frankfurt.
In the United States and Canada, exhibitions of Samuel Bak's work have been presented since 1969 at the: Brockton Art Center, MA 1969); Saidy E. Bronfman Center, Montreal 1970); Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University 1976); Koffler Art Gallery, Toronto 1989). In 1975, his work was included in an important exhibition "The Jewish Experience in the Art of the 20th Century" at the Jewish Museum, New York. In 1990, his work was included in a related exhibition at the Barbican Center, London.
Since Bak's arrival in the United States, one man exhibitions of his work have been held at The Charach/Epstein Museum, Detroit; The Spertus Museum in Chicago; The Wilshire Boulevard Temple/Gallery in Los Angeles; and The Mizel Museum, Denver. Since 1994, a selection of Bak's works has been part of the group show entitled "Witness and Legacy" that has been travelling to North American museums and is scheduled to continue until the year 2000.
These and other images by Samuel Bak can be seen at Pucker Gallery.
Samuel Bak:
1933
Born 12 August in Vilna, Poland
1940-44
Under German occupation: ghetto, work-camp,
refuge in a monastery
1942
First exhibition of drawings in the ghetto Vilna
1945-48
Displaced Persons camps in Germany; studied
painting in Munich
1948
Emigrated to Israel 1952 Studied at the Bezalel Art School, Jerusalem
1953-56
Army service
1956
received the First Prize of the American-Israeli Cultural Foundation
1956-59
Lived in Paris. Studied at l'�cole des Beaux Arts
1959-93
Lived in Rome, Israel, NYC, Paris, and Switzerland
1993
Moved to Weston, Massachusetts
Galerie Levy, Hamburg, 1980;
Thorens Fine Art, Basel, 1981;
Kallenbach Fine Art, Munich, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1987;
Soufer Gallery, New York, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1992;
Galerie Ludwig Lange, Berlin, 1987;
Galerie Carpentier, Paris, 1988;
Galerie M.A.G., Paris, 1989;
Galerie Marc Richard, Zurich, 1990;
Galerie de la Cathedrale, Fribourg, 1991, 1992;
Galerie Picpus, Montreux, 1991, 1992;
Pucker Gallery, Boston, 1993, 1995, 1996
Traveling Exhibition organized by Ministry of Culture and Education which visited 300 cultural centers in Israel, 1980-85;
Stadtgalerie Bamberg, Villa Dessauer, 1988;
"The Past Continues - Two Decades" Koffler Gallery, Toronto Ontario, 1990;
"The Past Continues" Temple Judea Museum, Philadelphia, 1991;
"Bak and D�rer" D�rer Museum, Nuremberg, 1991;
"Samuel Bak - Landschaften J�discher Erfahrung" J�disches Museum, Stadt Frankfurt am Main, 1993;
"FLIGHT: Escape, Hope, Redemption" Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion, NYC, 1994;
"Samuel Bak - A Retrospective Journey: Paintings 1946-1994" Janice Charach Epstein Museum/Gallery, West Bloomfield, MI, 1994;
"Myth, Midrash and Mysticism" Spertus Museum, Chicago, IL, 1995;
"Myth, Midrash, and Mysticism" Mizel Museum of Judaica, Denver, Colorado, 1995;
"Landscapes of Jewish Experience" Wilshire Boulevard Temple, Los Angeles, California, 1995;
"Myth, Midrash, and Mysticism" The National Catholic Center For Holocaust Education, Seton Hill College, Greensburg, PA, 1995;
"Myth, Midrash, and Mysticism" Rosen Museum Gallery, Boca Raton, FL, 1996
International Art Fair, Basel, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1986;
"Bilder Sind Nicht Verboten" Stadtische Kunst�halle, Dusseldorf, 1982;
"Still Life" Tel Aviv Museum, 1984; International Art Fair, Ghent, 1986;
"Chagall to Kitaj" Barbican Art Center, London, 1990;
"Witness and Legacy" Travelling Group Exhibition in North America, 1995-present
D�rer House, Nuremberg;
Germanisches National Museum, Nuremberg;
German Parliament, Bonn;
Irael Museum, Jerusalem;
Jewish Museum, New York;
Kunstmuseum, Bamberg;
Municipality of Nuremberg;
Rose Museum, Brandeis, Waltham, Massachusetts; University of Haifa, Israel;
Yad Vashem Museum, Jerusalem; Vaud State, Switzerland;
J�disches Museum, Stadt Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Chess as Metaphor In the Art of Samuel Bak. Jean Louis Cornuz. Boston & Montreux, 1991;
Samuel Bak, The Past Continues. Samuel Bak and Paul T. Nagano. David R. Godine, Boston, 1988;
Bak, Monuments to Our Dreams. Rolf Kallenbach. Limes Verlag, Weisbaden & Munich, 1977;
Bak, Paintings of the Last Decade. A. Kaufman and Paul T. Nagano. Aberbach, New York, 1974; Landsberg:
A Memoir 1944-1948 by Samuel Bak. Samuel Bak in progress);
Landscapes of Jewish Experience. Lawrence Langer in progress)
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