The exhibition presents a period of S. Bakas' work that is little known to Lithuanian art lovers - his youth in Paris and Rome, which the artist describes as a time of searching for the perfect brushstroke and his own style.
While studying and creating in the great European capitals, the artist did not forget Vilnius - the traumatic experiences in his hometown became one of the key thematic lines in his work during this period.
The theme of Vilnius is complemented by the works of Eglė Ridikaitė, winner of the Lithuanian National Award, which depict the exposures of the floor of the Great Synagogue of Vilnius and the mikvah. "It is with the help of art that we "uncover" the boundaries between the past and the present, everything is real that is moved by our creative force (consciousness)," says Ieva Šadzevičienė, Chief Curator of the Samuel Bak Museum.
Samuel Bak (b. 1933), an honorary citizen of Vilnius, who is based in Weston, USA, has given a large collection of his works, some of which were created in his youth in Paris and Rome. Symbolically, the huge consignment arrived in Lithuania on the first day of 2024, like a New Year's gift.
Samuel arrived in Paris, the capital of the artists of that time, in 1956. In the Paris of the 1960s, the avant-garde mood was in full swing: everything had to be rediscovered, the past belonged to the past, and there was a belief in the power of progress.
While in Paris, Samuel met his future wife, Annalisa Cantoni, an Italian woman of Jewish origin. In 1959, they settled in Italy, in the village of Monterosi near Rome, and later in the capital itself. The renowned Robert Schneider Gallery, which presents postmodern art, became interested in Bak's work.
S. Bak had his first exhibition of drawings in the Vilnius Ghetto when he was only nine years old. The famous writers Abraham Suckever and Šmerkė Kačerginskis invited the boy to the exhibition, drawing attention to his talent. Lacking paper for his drawings, Samuel was invited to receive the yearbook of the Vilnius Jewish Community, the Pink, a several hundred-page book of the charity organisation with lists of donors and rules of operation.
Hiding from destruction, the young artist and his mother had to spend months hiding in the archives of the Benedictine monastery. Samuel's father was shot by the Nazis in Paneriai in 1944, just days before the ghetto was liberated.
After the war, Samuel and his mother lived for a short time in Lodz, and later in a displaced persons' camp near Munich. After the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Samuel Bak moved to Jerusalem and studied at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. After military service, he moved to Paris in 1956, graduated from the École des Beaux-Arts, and moved to Rome in 1959.
The artist travelled all over Europe during his thirty years there, changing his place of residence frequently, before settling in the Boston suburb of Weston in 1993. He still lives and works there today.
