Samuel Bak

The Missing

2020
Oil on canvas (triptych)
Each panel 16 1⁄8 x 20 1⁄8 inches
Left panel signed and dated lower right: BAK 20, center panel signed and dated lower left: BAK 20, right panel siged and dated lower right: BAK 20
"The Missing" speaks to lives lost and never found in the Holocaust. In the foreground of the left panel, a woman holds up a piece of torn, yellowed paper with a sketch of a man holding two suitcases. The image is a familiar within the canon of Bak’s work, drawing upon associations of displacement and escape. The drawing is faint, and the figures face is mostly obstructed by a hat—it is the briefest outline of a forgotten traveler.

The woman clutches tightly to the paper, holding it up as if showing it to the viewer, almost calling upon the viewer to locate the figure in the sketch. Her eyes are downturned, mirroring the posture of the man in the drawing, which creates a sense of familial connection between the two. Hair is swept across her face and her expression is forlorn.

The background is a landscape of memory—the most notable detail being a rock floating in the sky with two buildings, one with a chimney, evoking crematorium chimneys. It floats past, nearly blending with the pale blue grey of the sky. The woman faces away from the chaos of the background, entirely focused upon the sketch in her hand.

Lilly Harvey (Guest writer)
BAK a Day, January 7, 2023
Themes: Figure, Boat, Travel, City, Smoke