Illuminations: The Art of Samuel Bak

Josée and Samuel Bak, a world-renowned artist and Holocaust survivor, and gallery owners Sue and Bernie Pucker, have donated 20 paintings for exhibition at the Brookline, MA headquarters of Facing History and Ourselves. This exhibit includes an audio tour with commentaries written and narrated by Professor Lawrence L. Langer, professor emeritus of English at Simmons College. In addition, this collection is intended to be shared across North America as part of an important new educational resource for Facing History’s work with educators and students. On January 20, 2009, supporters, staff, and friends came together at Facing History to launch the exhibit, titled Illuminations: The Art of Samuel Bak.

The evening highlighted the special relationship Facing History has with Samuel Bak, Bernie Pucker, and Professor Lawrence L. Langer. Executive Director of Facing History Margot Stern Strom began the evening by speaking about how the themes of Bak’s work are also the themes of Facing History and Ourselves: questions of identity, responsibility, the challenges of justice, and the difficulties of rebuilding what was destroyed.

Samuel Bak shared with guests a reflection of his first exhibition, which took place in the Vilna ghetto when he was nine years old. There, renowned poet Avrom Sutzkever, chose a number of Bak’s drawings to display in a makeshift exhibition of works by the Ghetto’s painters and sculptors. He remembered walking to the exhibition, to a square where a large group of Jewish people had recently been left after being transferred from another ghetto. Bak spoke of the incongruity of this mass of displaced persons with the theatre foyer where his works were being displayed.

To close the evening, guests heard from Bernie Pucker, who shared his thought process in deciding where to donate Bak’s art. He said, "we would need an organization with a profound commitment to the important issues, questions, and challenges of our day and a vision of a better world." After decades of involvement with Facing History, Pucker said it seemed clear that these works of art be given to the organization, expanding the meaningful role of Bak’s art through the energy and effective programming of Facing History.