Question of Life: New Work by Samuel Bak

At ninety-two, “Life” is no longer an abstraction for Samuel Bak, but instead represents the decades of events, challenges, choices, and outcomes too numerous to catalogue and too random to ascribe predictable control. After years of transposing objects into ideas, Bak uses his mastery of this technique to reexamine the arc of a lifetime, layering over it a retrospective survey of the visual icons he has developed throughout his artistic career. In his incisive essay, Carl M. Herbert explores the many objects and settings of Bak’s work, sharing a lifetime of study of Bak’s rich visual lexicon of symbols, metaphors, and erudite references to provide context for the viewer. He encourages the viewer to bring personal experience to the process of understanding, opening our potential to see the world around us with new eyes.

<b>Samuel Bak</b> has had numerous exhibitions in major museums, galleries, and universities throughout Europe, Israel, and the United States. Since 1993, he has resided with his wife, Josée, in the Boston area. Bak has been the subject of numerous articles, scholarly works, and books, including<i> Between Worlds. </i>He was the recipient of the 2002 German Herkomer Cultural Prize.