In 1943, at the age of ten years old, Samuel Bak went to visit an artist’s studio in the Vilna Ghetto, with the hopes of potential mentorship. However, upon arrival he only found an empty studio and an incomplete painting, as the artist had been deported and killed. The drawing left behind remains etched in Bak’s mind years later: a boy was depicted sitting at a table reaching out for crumbs of bread by a pristine white cup, saucer, and teaspoon. Although Bak cannot recall the name of the artist, the narrative of the painting is continued through numerous Bak paintings. The cup and saucer have come to represent peace within the complex lexicon of Bak’s visual vocabulary, or an as he said in his memoir Painted in Words “they were the ghostly signs of an impossible dream.”
As with many paintings within the Unstill Life series, items of domesticity are cracked, crumbling, and reconfigured, signifying the loss of the traditional home sphere. The color palette is bright and inviting, including a wide range of blues, lush greens, and orange browns. However, in the corner slightly darker blues and greys indicate the formation of a storm above.
Light blue liquid spills from the tea pot, piling on to the stone teacup; forever frozen. As the title indicates, just “a little more” causes the cup to spill over, as it is no longer able to hold liquid as it is designed to do. What happens when these items of convention no longer function as they are meant to? The pot is held up by a wooden configuration, an attempt to preserve items of the past. A question mark, created out of an assemblage of wood curves along the spout of the pot, perhaps a representation of a questioning of the “impossible dream.”
Lilly Harvey (Guest writer)
BAK a Day, August 28, 2023
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Good to the last drop, the motto for Folgers coffee. Bak provides us with the last drip, or drop, of hope. The monumental tea kettle made of stone exudes the final drops of existence.
The engaged question mark is presented in the colors of the elusive rainbow. The rainbow was presented as the covenant between God and humankind that no such disaster would ever occur. Wrong!
But questions abound… The blue ancient cup and saucer accept these last drops of hope as if they will be preserved. Will they serve a reminder of the civilization that was almost obliterated and continues to be diminished. Why?
Just today, the tyrant Putin threatened the safety of the world. He clearly miscalculated and wanted much More, not a Little More.
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