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The choice to testify to the horrors of history is a courageous one. Becoming a Witness: from Abstraction to Figuration explores Samuel Bak’s struggle to represent his experiences during the Holocaust. From 1958 until 1966, Bak used abstraction to discreetly allude to his past, at a time when the testimonies of survivors of the Shoah went unheard. This exhibition examines how he devised a novel approach to painting in the late sixties to commemorate the six million lives lost and question the endless cycles of war and genocide that plague our world. These works interrogate our relationships to one another; our responses in moments of conflict; our perpetuation of prejudice and fear; and our inability to maintain peace. Yet he also gives us hope –that acknowledges mistakes and catastrophes while allowing for reconstruction and healing after destruction.
Exhibition funding generously sponsored by Douglas County Visitor Improvement Fund, Omaha Steaks, Anonymous, Mutual of Omaha, Valmont, Shirley and Leonard Goldstein Supporting Foundation and Nebraska Arts Council | Nebraska Cultural Endowment.
Anonymous
Shirley and Leonard Goldstein Supporting Foundation
The Curator Talk on January 25 begins with a performance by a UNO flute student at 5:15 P.M. and is followed by a lecture by SBMLC Chief Curator Alexandra Cardon at 5:45 P.M. The topic of the first Curator Talk for Becoming a Witness: From Abstraction to Figuration is “Introduction to the Exhibition.”
Lindsay Tague, Arts Reporter, produced a story about SBMLC for KVNO Classical 90.7 radio station on December 12, 2023. Lindsay also records the Museum’s exhibition audio tour in English and oversees the recording and editing of the audio tour in Spanish, Arabic, and Karen.
SBMLC Chief Curator Alexandra Cardon participated in a virtual conversation with Samuel Bak and writer Dr. Laima Vincė on “Tracing Memory: Being a Refugee Now and 80 Years Ago” on December 20, 2023. The event was moderated by Leva Šadzevičienė, Head of the Samuel Bak Museum in Vilnius, Lithuania.
The conversation was based on the life of artist Samuel Bak (born in Vilnius, Lithuania in 1933) who is not only a Holocaust survivor but is also someone who has experienced life as a refugee, fleeing the Soviet Vilnius and settling in the Displaced Persons Camp in Landsberg, Germany. His art speaks not only about the Holocaust but also about the experiences of people who were forced to leave their homes and families and to re-settle or find temporary housing. For Samuel Bak, the Holocaust, and post-war trauma became the source of inspiration and his artworks - the educational tools for numerous refugees who are currently experiencing the re-settlement from their homelands.
The Samuel Bak Museum in Vilnius, Lithuania is a branch of the Vilna Gaon Museum of Jewish History. This museum has an interactive exhibition on their website (in English) about Bak’s art.
Students from UNO’s Art 3920 Illustration 2 The Static Image class, taught by Professor Caitlin Cass, were asked to create illustrations that either commemorated and educated people about the Holocaust or brought attention to a contemporary refugee crisis highlighted in the Flight and Hope exhibition. Each student chose a Samuel Bak painting from the exhibition, and then either reinterpreted his symbols or invented their own to reflect on displacement and hope.
SBMLC offers daily public tours, audio tours in multiple languages, young visitor and ESL treasure hunts, and family-friendly activities.
Exhibition Audio Tour
The Museum has a free 6-stop audio tour in English, Spanish, Arabic, and Karen available for visitors. Please bring your headphones and a smart device to scan the QR code at each stop.
Translation of Exhibition Audio Tour provided with the support of Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment.
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