Brown University Library News

Lecture: May 11, 7 pm Brown/RISD Hillel, 80 Brown St (corner of Angell St.) Exhibit: May 11-May 25, 2009, M-F, 9 am – 5 pm Bopp Seminar Room 3rd Floor, John Hay Library Providence Rhode Island Fourteen works of art by the acclaimed artist Samuel Bak are on display at the John Hay Library through the end of May, coinciding with a talk by Mr. Bak which will take place on May 11. Samuel Bak, born in 1933 in Lithuania, suffered with his family the persecutions of the holocaust and Soviet occupation, eventually finding refuge in Israel in 1948. Following studies at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Bak lived in Israel, Italy, France, Switzerland, and the U. S., where he has resided in Weston, Massachusetts since 1993. His paintings reflect his childhood experience, his reaction to Biblical themes, and his fascination with earlier painters, especially Albrecht Durer. His current work is intended to remind viewers of the world in many of its darkest, most challenging moments. The exhibit at the John Hay is sponsored by the Pucker Gallery in Boston where additional works of Mr. Bak may be seen.

A volume of John James Audubon’s master work, The Birds of America, is on display on the main floor of the John Hay Library. Each plate will be on display for only one month. This month’s bird is the “Easter Bluebird”.
This elephant folio edition of The Birds of America, bound in six volumes, was presented by Albert E. Lownes to the Library on the occasion of his 50th class reunion in 1970.
For more information please contact hay@brown.edu