What a beautifully painted, engaging composition of sheer destruction! Trees (Bak family) are broken, wrapped in the rock of a tombstone, cut into four pieces (grandparents), ironically draped in the yellow ribbon of homecoming or the tefillin of an unanswered prayer. A colorless portion of a rainbow arc, often used by Bak to question the promised covenant which seems to disappear in times of great strife, is shown nailed to a mostly branchless tree trunk. Buildings are crumbling; all doors are closed, so no escape; windows are either empty or perhaps revealing internal flame; chimneys are filled with the smoke of the crematoria and carved from stone, a monumental representation of humanity lost.
With a jarring change in perspective, there is a live, well-dressed individual standing before this scene of decimation, apparently reading something. Is the reading material a map, a history book, a prayer book? In November of 2017, I had the honor to visit Vilnius with Sam, several of his family members and multiple friends from Pucker Gallery to celebrate the opening of The Samuel Bak Museum. Sam took us on a tour of the area, which was once the Jewish neighborhood, pointed out the modern version of his old home and the monastery where he and his mother were hidden for weeks. Although we saw modern buildings without damage, I suspect the image of this painting is more representative of his memories.
Sam donated a large number of his paintings and drawings to the museum in memory of his family and the many other Jewish people in Vilnius killed during the destruction of the Holocaust. His works are permanent visual reminders of the devastation of these horrible acts, perpetrated in a quest for power over individuals, families, and whole populations. “Bygone” came from the root “gone by” and has come to mean what is lost, departed, fallen, or dead. Interestingly, however, the phrase “let bygones be bygones” has morphed into an expression of forgiveness which implies a total abrogation of causal events. Today’s political vernacular tends to use the phrase “let’s just move on”.
Forgiveness may or may not be possible for the worst of human misconduct, but we must never forget. Could we try remember, acknowledge, discuss, and hopefully prevent?
Dr. Carl M. Herbert (Guest Writer)
BAK a Day, March 22, 2023
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Let bygones be bygones. How can we allow the atrocities of the present and the past recede into the mist of memory?
As the hatted figure in the foreground approaches the scene of devastation, how can we not acknowledge what other persons have perpetrated?
Broken tree and severed parts of the tree trunk referring to the passage of time independent of human beings' evil deeds. And the eternal smoke of loss.
All a reminder of what we see on TV and in Ukraine.
When and how will we ever learn?
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