Bak to donate almost 160 of his works to Lithuania

On 16 November 2017, the International Day for Tolerance, the Samuel Bak Museum opened its doors. On the occasion of Museum's 6th anniversary, the joyful news came from Boston - artist Samuel Bak, a Holocaust survivor and Honorary citizen of Vilnius, is donating almost 160 of his works to Lithuania.

 

The Museum is currently hosting a comprehensive exhibition celebrating artist's 90th birthday - "The Art of Samuel Bak in Vilnius: a Retrospective 1942-2023". It was opened in the end of June: at that time artist promised to donate 50 more of his works to Lithuania, mostly from Rome and Paris period (1956-1965).

 

"However, when the feedback from the visitors of the exhibition reached Samuel, as well as he had received the drawings, created especially for him by Ukrainian children on the occasion of his 90th birthday, artist informed me that he had decided to donate not 50, but three times more works! The artworks belong to his "Golden Collection", Samuel Bak is collecting for many years," says Art Historian Ieva Šadzevičienė, Curator of the exhibition and Head of the Samuel Bak Museum.

 

With this gift, the Vilna Gaon Museum of Jewish History will be able to boast the largest collection of Samuel Bak artworks in Europe and the second largest in the world (after the Samuel Bak Museum at the University of Omaha, Nebraska).

 

On the occasion of the Samuel Bak Museum 6th anniversary artist shares the following message: "One of the most wonderful gifts I received at the age of 90, it was to see the opening of the exhibition in Vilnius, and what a wonderful job was done there. It encouraged me to make a gift of three times the size of my collection," says Samuel Bak, who was born in Vilnius in 1933.

 

The artworks are expected to arrive at the museum in December. The expanded Samuel Bak collection will count up to 400 works of art - prints, paintings and drawings. The artist has deliberately selected those series of works that museum had less of.

 

The shipment consists of the paintings artist started to create three years ago, the others were finished back in his Paris – Rome period, and some artworks were retouched just a few days before the donation to Vilnius, when Samuel Bak learned that the Museum had received the financial support to pay for the shipment of his gift.

 

The collection is being sent with funding from the Office of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania. On the 6th of November, the Selection Committee for Projects Related to Historical Memory and the Presentation of Lithuania Abroad unanimously approved this decision.