Samual Bak

Artist Samuel Bak was born in Vilna, Poland in August of 1933, seven years before the Nazi-German occupation. Bak was raised in the ghetto of Vilna before a forced move with his family to a labor camp. Shortly thereafter, he ended up as a refugee in a monastery after being snuck out. He had endured a lifetime's worth of war in those few years and the atrocities of the occupation had a tremendous effect on him, like with most who had encountered the Holocaust. He was taken, along with all of his family, because he was Jewish and after the war, Bak and his mother were the only left in his family. This, along with everything else he had seen during his time in the ghetto and labor camps, plagued Bak for years. However, something positive, at least for the art community, came from this experience: the painting of several series in which Bak tackled what he had encountered. He portrayed those events and images metaphorically in a less-than-traditional, surrealist manner.

"Painting is like a game of chess Ð'- you have to foresee things, but you cannot foresee everything" (_). This was stated by Bak on the topic of his subject matter before and including the "Ð'...your move: Chess in the Art of Samuel Bak" series. Now, this statement may have been in reference to the events that occurred early in his life, or simply how he goes about creating his pieces. To those who are unfamiliar with Bak's background and the game of chess, his work may come across as nothing more than vibrant colors and a lot of out of place chess pieces. But the viewer, when approaching Bak's chess series, is expected to know the basic rules of chess and how the idea of warfare and strategy is used in it. From this, the viewer should be able to see the connection that Bak's subject matter shares with the events of the twentieth century, and how it alludes to his encounter with the Holocaust. This is what Bak expects of the viewer, though it is not always a given.

The work, "Above and Below", is one in the "Ð'...your move" series mentioned above. The selection is oil on canvas and was completed in 2003. [Presented in this painting are winged pawns on a landscape that is divided by a piece of chessboard. The grounded pawn yields a set of metal wings that hinder its flight, rendering it earth-bound](_). A key element of the painting is the contrast, which is very subtle, but at the same time stimulating. The use of the blue pawn flying plays a nice contrast against the dark clouds, but even more-so in comparison to the warm tones of the second grounded pawn and its setting. [Another