From Picasso’s devastatingly beautiful Blue Period to the famed woodblock print "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" by Japanese printmaker Katsushika Hokusai, the color blue has long been treasured by artists and art lovers alike. Few, however, know the historical significance of the color, especially as it relates to the Holocaust.
Nearly eighty years after the fall of the Third Reich in mid-1945, walls of Nazi gas chambers remain branded with bizarre blue splotches. The Prussian blue color is the result of ferrocyanide, a byproduct of Zyklon B, the pesticide used by the Nazis to exterminate Jews. A truly beautiful color in other contexts, the pigment that lives within these rooms serves as visual evidence of the horrific murders that took place in the gas chambers.
With the knowledge of the link between the color blue and the Holocaust, Helpers takes on a radical new meaning. Are the two blue, wooden figures symbolic of those who perished in gas chambers? Or perhaps simply at the hands of the Third Reich? As is always the case with Bak’s work, viewers are guaranteed to leave his work with more questions than when they arrived.
Lucy McGing (Guest Writer)
BAK a Day, December 30, 2023
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It is full speed ahead in Samuel Bak’s Helpers. The piece is a symphony of figurative movement, the animated brushstrokes reflecting the physical nature of the subject matter. The wooden figures are a familiar symbol within the canon of Sam Bak’s work, and in each piece, they are uniquely reinvented.
The central wooden figure is held up by wheels, which sink into the ground beneath. It feels both human and mechanical, with two expressive faces merged into one. Although the arms and hunched posture of the blue figure suggest forward motion, the wheels in the ground appear stuck in place. A smaller, more realistic figure leans against the beam within the figurative structure, attempting to propel it forward. The smaller figure is only loosely fleshed out in paint; he is only a helper after all.
Only the lower body of the wooden figure to the right is fully visible. The blue, wooden structure is battered by bullet wounds, and two small figures holding ropes appear to be the only way forward. These structures are tangible memories of those unable to physically escape. However, they are still a part of the endless journey, as they are pushed and pulled forward in whatever way possible, despite the strain. Do these helpers have no choice but to carry the weight of the past with them?
In wartime, people are transformed into mechanisms within a larger machine. Are the “helpers” merely a part of a larger puzzle?
Lilly Harvey (Guest writer)
BAK a Day, February 3, 2023
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Brilliant composition of at least 7 figures as we and the artist continue to figure out life in the time of War. Strong unanticipated color and great energy.
These figures are caught up and part of an ancient, wheeled contraption.
The bound, bullet hole ridden silhouetted figure is pulled along, looming over the chaotic scene.
And we wonder what prompted this image to appear.
And of course, the renderings of smoke as stone, wood and even cardboard.
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