Join us Friday, 9 December at 1:00 pm for a conversation with Pucker Gallery artist Samuel Bak, longtime collector and advocate Dr. Carl Herbert, and Gallery Director Bernie Pucker. This event will provide an in-depth opportunity to explore the rich display of the Mogen David, the 6-pointed Jewish Star, and its various of symbolic meanings. The exhibition Icons of Alone: New Work by Samuel Bak will be on view at Pucker Gallery from 3 December through 15 January 2023. We also invite each of you to participate in an essay contest! Select a single image from Icons of Alone and write a short story or essay of up to 500 words. The prize will be a signed copy of the newest Bak monograph When the Rainbow Breaks: H.O.P.E. in the Art of Samuel Bak by Henry F. Knight. Please email entries to caroline@puckergallery.com by Wednesday, 7 December 2022.
Samuel Bak was born on August 12, 1933 in Vilna, Poland at a crucial moment in modern history. From 1940 to 1944, Vilna was under first Soviet, then German occupation. While both he and his mother survived, his father and four grandparents all perished at the hands of the Nazis. At the end of World War II, he and his mother fled to the Landsberg Displaced Persons Camp. There, he was enrolled in painting lessons at the Blocherer School, Munich. Bak’s studies continued when he immigrated to Israel, and he later received a grant to pursue his studies in Paris. In 1959, he moved to Rome where his first exhibition of abstract paintings met with considerable success. In 1961, he was invited to exhibit at the "Carnegie International" in Pittsburgh. Later in 1963, two one-man exhibitions were held at the Jerusalem and Tel Aviv Museums. It was subsequent to these exhibitions, during the years 1963-1964, that a major change in his art occurred. There was a distinct shift from abstract forms to a metaphysical figurative means of expression. Ultimately, this transformation crystallized into his present pictorial language. Since 1959, Samuel Bak has had solo exhibitions at private galleries in New York, Boston, London, Paris, Berlin, Munich, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Zurich, Rome, and other cities around the world. Numerous large retrospective exhibitions have been held in major museums, universities, and public institutions around the Globe. Publications on Samuel Bak’s work include twelve books, most notably a 400 page Monograph entitled Between Worlds, and his touching memoir, Painted in Words. He has also been the subject of two documentary films.
Dr. Carl Herbert is a fourth-generation physician whose career has been devoted to helping infertility patients overcome a wide spectrum of obstacles to create their families. Early in his career he participated in the founding of one of the first eIVF centers in the United States. For more than forty years, Dr. Herbert has contributed to the growth and development of assisted reproductive technologies, continually implementing the evolving techniques and optimizing their clinical applications for care. The ambiguity of a socially awkward accolade, “You got me pregnant!”, has become a recurrent reward, both humorous and joyful. By serendipity, Dr. Herbert walked into Pucker Gallery for the first time in 1985 when visiting Boston for a medical conference. From this point on, his nascent interest in art grew under the generous tutelage and encouragement of Mr. Pucker. A close personal friendship evolved as they visited artists and exhibitions around the world; exchanged thoughts on the experience and intrinsic value that art, in all its many forms, can provide individuals and society; and shared writings which illuminated these principles.
Bernard Pucker is the director of Pucker Gallery, which he founded with his wife, Sue, on Newbury Street in Boston in 1967. Pucker Gallery represents over fifty artists from around the world, presenting approximately ten exhibitions annually, often paired with artist talks, virtual “WebinArts,” and other public events. Bernie is currently a Board Member at the Japan Society, Boston, and the Jewish Publication Society. He also serves on the Leadership Council for Facing History and Ourselves, as well as the Artistic Advisory Board for the Terezin Music Foundation. Previously, he served as President of Solomon Schechter Day School; President of the Newbury Street League; and a Board Member for the Friends of Copley Square and The Unity Project, among others. Bernie received his MA in Modern Jewish History from Brandeis University and his BA in History and English Literature from Columbia College.