Samuel Bak

The Magician's Curtain

   
The Magician's Curtain
  • 2021
  • Oil on canvas
  • 11 18 × 14 inches(28 × 35 12 cm)

  • Signed and dated lower left: BAK 21

  • In many ways, an artist is like a magician. A blank canvas is transformed into a world of the artist’s imagination; a process that is mysterious to the outside world. A paint brush serves as the artist's wand, while the canvas is their stage.

    In this painting, the magician is losing control of his tricks, as the red stage curtain falls to the ground. The magician is made of stone and split in the middle. Has he been subjected to the classic sawing a woman in half trick himself? Larger stones float above his head, evoking a sense of foreboding.

    On the right side of the painting, the blue background peels away, curling over to reveal a nondescript red background. The facade of the painting is falling apart, while the magician (or artist) holds up a red wand attempting to control the world he has created.

    Lilly Harvey (Guest writer)
    BAK a Day, February 19, 2023

    -----------------------------------------

    Curtains! as the game is over.
    There is no way for the magician to change the results of the war or the battle.

    The magician is already in pieces and the magic wand is holding up a sheet.
    It is as if the trick has failed and in fact, the magician is just another person caught up in life and death.

    The scene unfolds as the magician is moving further onto the unstable piece of earth barely supported.
    And the next moment may bring the entire collapse.

    Who is the audience?

    Bernard H. Pucker, BAK a Day, April 29, 2022

  • Themes:  Figure Flag

Literature

FIGURING OUT . Paintings by Samuel Bak 2017-2022 Lawrence L. Langer, Andrew Meyers 2022 Boston, MA, p. 71, ill.

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