Holocaust Survivor's Art, Life To Be Explored

Art lovers and history buffs can learn about a new art exhibit before it arrives in the Tampa Bay area next year.

The Carrollwood Cultural Center is hosting a lecture Thursday by Laurence Langer on the works of artist Samuel Bak. Langer, a professor and author, will discuss Bak's newest artworks and his life as a Holocaust survivor.

This comes before Bak's latest exhibition goes on display in March at the Florida Holocaust Museum. Langer's lecture begins at 7 p.m. at the center, 4537 Lowell Road, Tampa.

Bak's experiences from the Holocaust are transformed in his artworks. He was born in Vilna, Poland, in 1933. When Vilna came under German occupation in 1941, Bak and his family moved into the Vilna ghetto. Bak and his mother eventually found refuge in a Benedictine convent and spent most of their time in an attic.

By the end of the war, Bak and his mother were the only members of his family to survive. From 1945 to 1948, Bak lived in a displaced persons camp in Germany and painted a self-portrait. He also studied painting in Munich during this period.

He would later study in Israel and France.

Bak spent his life dealing with the artistic expression of the destruction and dehumanization that make up his childhood memories, according to Laure Pericot, marketing director for the Carrollwood Cultural Center. She said he has created a visual language to remind the world of its most desperate moments.

Bak, 74, lives in Weston, Mass.

His newly created exhibition combines work from two of his more recent series: "Remembering Angels" and "The Warsaw Boys."

In the "Remembering Angels" series, Bak bases his work on Albrecht Durer's angel paintings; the ordered work of Durer's day has dissolved into scenes of chaos and chance.

In the "Warsaw Boys" series, Bak uses as his subject the famous documentary photograph of a young boy in the Warsaw ghetto being held at gunpoint by a Nazi soldier.

Langer wrote several books on the Holocaust, including "Holocaust Memories: The Ruins of Memory." For information about the lecture, visit www.carrollwoodcenter.org.