When is a Landscape still? When the artist Samuel Bak creates the scene out of his fertile imagination. Somehow Landscape painting remains a separate genre:
Still Life
Landscape
However, two of the still life objects here, e.g. the goblet and bottle, are presented as fragmented bas relief forms. They are accompanied by a whole and voluptuous pear. A strange trio of objects that have been presented as if they are owned by Bak.
It is strange setting!
The rootless small building reminds me of the small rootless homes placed on the grave sites of important rabbis and scholars in the B'nei Barak Cemetery. As if the roof would prevent the prayers and spirit of these venerable persons from reaching heaven. Not so practical when it rains.
The back structure built of stone provides a placement for the three objects. Clearly a remnant, but not of a holy place. All of the brokenness speaks of profane deeds.
The bare trees on either side of the structure seem to suggest arms reaching out to alert the viewer to a very Still Landscape.
We are challenged to rethink old forms as we try to find meaning in our world. The artist and this work may be suggesting that not everything has meaning.
Bernard H. Pucker, BAK a Day, October 6, 2023
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Bak invites the viewer into a world destroyed: peeling paint, crumbled stone, doors off their hinges, a house with no roof. Although the source of destruction is unclear, the still-life feels simultaneously forgotten and violently ravaged.
The surrounding landscape supports and interacts with the crumbling architecture, suggesting nature’s ability to provide new life. The trees, often representing rebirth within Bak’s work, hold up pieces of buildings and even emerge from within. Nature and man-made are intertwined, responding to one another as if in conversation.
Amidst chaos, a solitary pear remains intact, placed carefully in the center of the composition. The pear is shielded by a crumbling wall. Although buildings inevitably expire, life and vitality remain in the form of the pear.
Lilly Harvey (Guest Writer)
BAK a Day, November 18, 2022
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Mausoleum for the Still Life. If the category of Still Life paintings were intended to portray the status of the society that the objects were representing, then for our generation Natur Morte would be an apt title "Nature Dead". We have drained the Life out of the Still Life. Life continues but is no longer Still. Fractured and broken pieced together objects persist.
The stone bottle and cup within a stone burial vault. Only the robust Pear pear-sists. A coffin-like form is atop a tree. A small house without a roof reminds me of the small structure over the gravesite of the Rebbe in the cemetery of B'nai Brak. No roof so he can communicate directly with the Divine.
To the left the Tree monument. The tree grows out of the stone base or altar with drapery on it.
Indeed a Still-Landscape. Even a still small voice is not heard.
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