Author Description

In 1995, as Samuel Bak was working on a suite of twenty large paintings eventually entitled Landscape of Jewish Experience, Pucker Gallery reached out to scholar Lawrence L. Langer, who had recently edited Art from the Ashes: A Holocaust Anthology, to contribute to the monograph. His willingness to undertake this effort would open a vast experience for both Langer and Bak. For nearly thirty years, they have participated in a creative dance of images and ideas that has expanded both of their visions. Langer has written with great insight and precision about each new body of Bak’s art. Bak has in turn been energized by his exchanges with Langer. Together they have given each of us an opportunity—to address the fundamental questions of moral choice and our responsibility to unite and not divide, and to address the past and behave in a more humane and respectful manner toward one another in the present and future. An Unimaginable Partnership gathers these words and images in an impressive and extensive volume.