In general, artists are most profoundly impacted by the contexts — both historical and cultural — in which they live. Impressionists, for example, painted fluttering landscapes due to contemporary science about atoms and light waves and drew sidewalk scenes as Haussmannization transformed the Parisian streets. The current show at Pucker Gallery, "Icon of Loss: Recent Paintings by Samuel Bak," features an exhibition by Bak, a surrealist painter and, perhaps more importantly, a Holocaust survivor. His works are inspired by the atrocities and brutalities he witnessed in Poland during the 1930s and 1940s, but they are painted in such a way as to reflect on the Holocaust in an overarching sense.
The Pucker Gallery is a multi-level space that usually features more conservative — rather than contemporary or abstract — art. Located along Newbury Street and close to several other galleries, Bak's show is currently on view and is open until Dec. 2.
Bak initially gained recognition for his painting style and the incredible life that inspired his work. His work is currently classified as surrealist due to the dreamlike scenes and themes he explores, though he has also painted in an abstract style. Over his 60-year painting career, his work has been featured in museums and galleries across Europe and the United States.
The body of work currently on display was inspired by the way events like the Holocaust affected people, especially children. Take, for instance, the famous uncredited photograph of a small Jewish boy in the Warsaw Ghetto, his hands up in surrender. Bak uses this image, or more particularly the innocent and anguished look of confusion on the boy's face, in all 36 of the oil paintings on display.
Bak's work is generally small, something fitting for the subject matter that he explores. The intimate pieces depict the boy in his iconic, vulnerable stance in several unrecognizable landscapes. The shape of the boy's body is outlined on a brick wall in "Walled In" (2008), whereas he appears as a rock formation in "Ancient Memory" (2008) and on an island in the middle of the sea in "One Child Island" (2007). Bak's fluid brush strokes lend themselves to this type of work, and the muted tones create an ephemeral quality that is unquestionably dream-like and classically inspired.
Rather than situating the boy in a specific place and time, Bak chooses to nestle him in natural landscapes so he becomes a symbol of much more, a "Where's Waldo?" of sorts. Bak poses an interesting question: How do atrocities like the Holocaust effect children? The question applies not only to the Holocaust, which the artist himself witnessed, but to other man-made genocides and massacres. In each of the paintings, the boy is depicted as wood, rock, plant or water, all natural elements placed in natural worlds that are not created or altered by man. This sets up an interesting dichotomy between what is natural and what is not (or should not be, at least): mass human death and suffering caused by human violence.
Bak's work is powerful in a very subtle and complex way. Bak could depict the violence and horror that he presumably saw during the Holocaust, but instead he chooses to muse on a more general question spurred by the event itself, one that is not overly graphic or isolating. The moving work in this exhibit is clearly based on the Holocaust upon first glance, but has the flexibility and adaptability to apply to other events and personal traumas as well.
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Icon of Loss: Recent Paitnings by Samuel Bak
At the Pucker Gallery, through Dec. 2
Pucker Gallery, Boston
171 Newbury Street
617-267-9473
