On 29 December 2011, the exhibition “Samuel Bak: Stations of Life” of works by the distinguished Litvak artist was launched at the Tolerance Centre of the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum. The thirty-seven works on display, mostly paintings, reveal the evolution of the painter’s creative work, the geographic stations of his life from his childhood in Vilnius until the present time.

Samuel Bak was born in Vilnius on 12 August 1933. During Nazi occupation he lived for some time in the ghetto, worked at the HPK forced labour camp, hid in a convent  in Vilnius. From 1945 he lived at DP camps in Germany; in 1948 immigrated to Israel, later lived in France, Italy and Switzerland. In 1993, the artist settled in Weston, Massachusetts.

In 1942 on the initiative of A. Sutzkever the first exhibition of the talented nine-year-old boy was organised at the Vilnius Ghetto. From 1959 Bak held personal exhibitions at private galleries, museums and universities in Rome, London, Paris, Montreal, Jerusalem and other cities. In 2001, his first exhibition was held in Vilnius. Twelve books have been written about Bak, several documentaries made; poet Caroline Dine (USA) wrote verses to one of the pictures on display in Vilnius.

The launch of the exhibition was attended by Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Seimas of the Lithuanian Republic Emanuelis Zingeris, minister for culture Arūnas Gelūnas, American ambassador Anne E. Derse, officials from the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and foreign diplomatic missions in Lithuania.

Samul Bak’s exhibition was the closing event of the  programme of the Lithuanian government  “Events to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust of Lithuanian people in 2011”. According to the director of the VGSJM Markas Zingeris, the exhibition of part of Bak’s creative legacy that travelled from Boston would become the highlight of the future Litvaks’ Culture and Art Centre.

The lifelong artist’s friend, Rimantas Stankevičius, delivered a moving address at the launch of Bak’s exhibition.

The artist  once wrote that  his pictures rose from the depths of his imagination, while the creation process changed constantly, including search of meaning and form. The pictures reveal the nature of the world, the fragility of man’s life and the attempt to try and “make up” for what was done.

Bak’s retrospective of the 1942–2010 creative period, was on at the Tolerance Centre until 30 March 2012.  Besides the pictures from the Pucker Gallery, his childhood drawings and the book “Pinkas” that takes a special place in the artist’s life were displayed.

The visitors to the exhibition  “Samuel Bak: Stations of Life” were also able to visit the educational programme “Samuel Bak: Ich bin a Wilner”.