SAMUEL BAK (B. 1933) Portrait signed 'BAK' (lower right) oil on canvas 31 7/8 x 25 5/8 in (81.0 x 65.2 cm) Painted in 1982 Footnotes: Provenance Pucker Gallery, Boston, MA. Norman and Myrna Katz Collection, Massachusetts (acquired from the above). Literature B. H. Pucker, Samuel Bak. The Past Continues, Boston, 1987 (illustrated on the front cover). P. T. Nagano, SAMUEL BAK. The Past Continues, Boston, 1988, p. 1 (illustrated). B. R. Rubenstein, Samuel Bak. The unanswered Question, Washington, DC, 1994, p. 138 (illustrated). A. C. Faxon, Between Worlds. Paintings and Drawings of SAMUEL BAK from 1946 to 2001, Boston, 2002, p. 244 (illustrated). M. Haruach, Louder than Fear I shall Sing, Jerusalem, 2016, p. 40 (illustrated). S. B. Schäfer, Catalog Raisonné of Samuel Bak, Germany, online catalogue. Exhibited Boston, Pucker Safrai Gallery, Samuel Bak - The Past Continues, October 17 - November 28, 1987. Born 1933 in Vilna, Poland at the eve of the Nazi invasion, Samuel Bak was eight years old when the area came under German and Soviet occupation, and just a year later held his first public exhibition in the Ghetto of Vilna. As World War II came to an end, Bak and his mother fled to the Landsberg Displaced Persons Camps, where he continued his artistic education. Following, the pair settled in newly formed Israel in 1948 though Bak soon traveled to Pairs to further his studies in 1956. Samuel Bak has exhibited consistently since then and has received international acclaim for his treatment of themes within his painting, related to the genocide and liberation of the Jewish people. Notable exhibitions include retrospectives at Yad Vashem Museum in Jerusalem, and the South African Jewish Museum in Cape Town as well as solo exhibitions at the Bezalel National Museum in Jerusalem and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Samuel Bak currently resides outside of Boston, MA and many of his recent works are exhibited at the Pucker Gallery, Boston. Bak has long used the symbol of the Pear within his compositions which often brings to the forefront images and ideas of life, decay, death, and rebirth. Within his apocalyptic landscapes, devoid of human figure, this fruit becomes the central subject. The curves of the Pear in the present composition mimic that of a figure, while the tattered Pear appears to be placed on a guillotine. The composition has a still life quality to it, while the title Portrait steers the viewer away from interpreting the work in this manner, instead we begin to view the Pear as extension of oneself. The roman numeral XII looms within a clock face above the Pear, potentially marking its final hours. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing