Figuring Out: Paintings by Samuel Bak 2017-2022

Those familiar with the artistic lexicon of Samuel Bak will recognize many of the symbols present in the series Figuring Out, but they will also meet and explore a new cast of characters. Human figures in many guises navigate a search for identity in the postwar world and invite the audience into a dialogue about the future of mankind. The human face appears in various states--from flesh to stone, in wooden profile, or as a gigantic monument slowly sinking into the earth--but always in some way eroded, defaced, masked, blindfolded, bandaged, or distorted. Human figures inhabit a ravaged landscape but collaboratively and resolutely drag each other out of their wounded past in their determined journey toward an uncertain future. New to Bak's drama of identity is the figure of the magician, a master of manipulation who drifts between the whimsical and the grim.

With this latest body of work, Bak steadfastly proves the important role of the artist in understanding the human experience and confronting difficult episodes in the history of our time. As author Lawrence L. Langer writes: We are beholding a mute autopsy of the human journey, invited to become artists of the imagination ourselves as the only way of joining this arduous excursion into the meaning of our current existence.

In his essay, Langer demonstrates his mastery of Holocaust history and his clear understanding of Bak's visual language, deftly guiding us through the complex ambiguities of the work. He offers ways of seeing beyond mere looking, noticing and expanding upon both broad themes and seemingly inconsequential details. In his essay, art historian Andrew Meyers places Bak's figures in context with historical approaches to the genre, then thematically classifies Bak's multivalent approaches to the subject in a nuanced continuum.

Together, the artist and authors of Figuring Out turn the question of Who am I? into a question of Who are we?--preparing the viewer and reader to pick up the mantle of this inquiry.