Variant I (brown and ochre)
Edition: not known, plus artist's proofs
Paper: BFK Rives
Prints known:
1. Paper size: 55,5 x 75 cm
2. Signed and dated lower right: BAK, lower left: a.p., paper size: 55,5 x 75 cm
Variant II (green)
Edition: 150
Paper: wove
Prints known:
1. Museumsquartier Osnabrück-Felix-Nussbaum-Haus, Inv.-Nr. A 5497, signed lower left: BAK, 14/150, Schenkung Dr. Hannelore Eibach, Göttingen, paper size: 55,5 x 75 cm
This intaglio is a zinc plate image created by Bak in 1974 after he had completed a painting with the same content and same title earlier in the same year. Most of his prints and drawings are done subsequent to creating a painting and are not used as preliminary studies.
The stark, disturbing scene in this print presents a faceless soldier with two badly damaged angelic companions meeting on an isolated mountainous plateau in front of an unusual cluster of trees and plants. The scattered sampled fruit before the figures and the intimate sylvan enclave alludes to a bizarre Garden of Eden event. There is a fractured tree trunk receiving exceptional care with support by rope and stakes, fed from below by a hose and special nourishing pots for new root growth. However, small fruit plants are growing separately in case the large tree fails. The tree of knowledge is on life support suggesting wisdom has been severely compromised at this setting.
The soldier cannot be identified as his face is covered by two wooden pieces hooked together in the middle. He still holds a rifle in his right hand but a cloth or bandage in his left hand. Although the two maimed angels with reconstructed and artificially attached wings are beside him, they cannot offer any real help in their current condition. One angel is decapitated with its head relocated within the traveling box and has both legs amputated above the knee. The other angel, though standing, has lost most its left arm and stares vacuously forward. These figures appear to be the victims of warfare. Given this work was created immediately after the 1973 Yom Kippur war in Israel, these figure’s may be expressions of Bak’s ambivalence toward soldier sacrifice during such violent confrontations.
Centrally located between the figures and the trees is an antique hand-cranked radio with an old man’s head attached on top. Is this the voice of reason or an experiment in propaganda? There is also a flag on the ground before them. A banner or a symbol of surrender? Taken together this is a gathering of the vulnerable and the wounded in a precarious refuge. What is the experiment and where is the wisdom? An interesting effect of the monotoned coloration produced by this form of printing is a dreamlike quality which allows the viewer greater freedom of interpretation. Let your imagination engage the surreal but do so with gravitas.
Dr. Carl M. Herbert (Guest Writer)
BAK a Day, December 1, 2023
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Repro: Variant I, print 1.
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