A Flame

Bak's painting, which embraces aspects of Socialist Realism, Surrealism, and Cubism, draws upon allegory, symbolism and metaphor to explore his identity as a Holocaust survivor and aspects of contemporary culture. The flame is an emblem of particular significance within Jewish culture, used in a religious context in the synagogue in the form of the ‘ner tamid’ (Hebrew: 'eternal light') lamp that burns perpetually before or near the ark of the Law. Here it also suggests the destruction of the traditional Eastern European Jewish shtetls (small towns or villages) and their associated culture and marks an act of remembrance for those who perished during the Holocaust.