Humanity - Samuel Bak

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The painting is called The Family by Samuel Bak. Samuel Bak is a Holocaust survivor. It is haunting. Some faces are covered, some eyes are covered, some eyes are dead, some eyes are closed, few are open and looking ... some faces are bandaged, some figures are disfigured, some are rich, some are poor, some are busts, some are real.

An old man, Da Vinci maybe, has put on his sunglasses so we can't see his red eyes or maybe so he can't see the world anymore so weary he is from his many years. Beside him to his right is what seems to be him again, but reflected from a mirror ... another bearded and weary traveler or perhaps us who are looking on, reflected.

Then to the right is a faded painting of someone, maybe an italian from the Renaissance. His/her eyes are open, but mouth is hidden.

Below are two war wounded men, seemed to be surrounded by brass horns. And beside him is one who is dead, and dressed in a military uniform. Then behind the dead is one alive, but we can only see one eye peaking out at us. And next a boy, one too young to have seen The Family, but clearly he has seen it.

And two his right is the canvas and the easel, the center and forefront, the work of Samuel Bak of the two dead ladies, one with her eyes open, one with her eyes closed with burning trailing off into the real burning cities in the very back.

Sometimes Jewish communities refer to the Holocaust as Shoah. Shoah is Hebrew for catastrophe.




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