Flight and Hope

This exhibition explores themes of flight, journey, and migration through Samuel Bak’s oeuvre.

His work, informed by his experiences as a forced migrant and refugee in the aftermath of World War II, offers a potent reminder of the humanity of migrants, their dreams of freedom, their flight from oppression, their search for home, and the fraught journey they undertake in the hope for a better life.

As the poet Warsan Shire notes in Home, her response to the harsh reality if life as an undocumented refugee in Europe in 2009, “No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark.” The exhibition paintings depict the ordeal of upheaval but also the hope and tenacity of those fleeing violence.

Flight and Hope will situate Bak’s works as part of a broader conversation about the status of refugees in 2023, the rising number of forced migrants across the globe, and the impact of changing demographics on the political discourse.

Nebraska has been the new home for thousands of resettled refugees since the late 1970s, following conflicts in Vietnam, Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, and Syria. Refugees have built new homes, created communities, and businesses in our state, turning the state in a “global heartland.” Statistics and research often dehumanize the experience of forced migration.

Bak’s paintings remind us that those undergoing this traumatic displacement are human; that individuals caught in conflict long for peace and a home; and that hope is, despite all odds, eternal.

Community Outreach

Here are ways you can engage with and help members of refugee migrant communities in Omaha:

• Immigrant Legal Center+ Refugee Empowerment Center: immigrantlc.org
• Lutheran Family Services: onelfs.org/new-americans/refugee-reception-and-placement
• International Council of Refugees and Immigrants (ICRI): icrius.org
• Restoring Dignity: rdomaha.org
• The Furniture Project: thefurnitureproject.org
• Refugee Women Rising: refugeewomenrising.org
• Nebraska Afghan Community Center: sites.google.com/view/ne-acc/home
• Karen Society of Nebraska: karenksn.org
• The Simple Foundation: thesimplefoundation.org
• Omaha Center for Refugees and Immigrant Service: ocrisi.org
• Intercultural Senior Center: interculturalseniorcenter.org
• ACLU of Nebraska: action.aclu.org/give/support-aclu-nebraska
• UNO Immigration and Refugee Services: unomaha.edu/college-of-information-science-and-technology/it-for-development/mhealth/immigration-and-refugee-services.php
• Welcome Corps: welcomecorps.org/get-started
• UNHRC – Gert Involved: unhcr.org/get-involved

The following articles, books and websites were used in the research and writing of the exhibition’s didactics:

• Alexander, L.E. (2020). "Give me your tired, your poor" vs. "Invasion!": Understanding treatment of immigrants in the United States by examining international laws of war. Journal of Religion & Society, 21, 79-105. http://hdl.handle.net/10504/126215
• Alexander, L.E., & Doña-Reveco, C. (2022, February 4). Midland Voices: Welcoming immigrants to Nebraska is both moral and pragmatic. Omaha World Herald, pp. 7. https://omaha.com/opinion/columnists/midlands-voices-welcoming-immigrants-to-nebraska-is-both-moral-and-pragmatic/article_99f728dc-8483-11ec-9a00-6349b978399e.html
• Bak, Samuel. Bak : Paintings of the Last Decade. Artistic Development ; the Metaphysical Works. 2d ed. New York: Aberbach Fine Art, 1976.
• Bak, Samuel, Paul T Nagano, and Pucker-Safrai Gallery. Samuel Bak : The Past Continues. 1st ed. Boston: D.R. Godine in association with Pucker Safrai Gallery, 1988.
• Bak, Samuel, Janice Charach-Epstein Museum/Gallery, and Pucker Gallery. Samuel Bak, a Retrospective Journey : Paintings 1946-1994. West Bloomfield, Mich.: Janice Charach Epstein Museum/Gallery, 1994.
• Bak, Samuel. Painted in Words : A Memoir. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001.
• Bak, Samuel, Steve Feinstein, Florida Holocaust Museum, and Pucker Gallery. Samuel Bak : Working through the Past : Paintings 1946-2000. Boston: Pucker Gallery, 2001.
• Bak, Samuel, Irene Tayler, and Alicia Craig Faxon. Between Worlds : The Paintings and Drawings of Samuel Bak from 1946 to 2001. Boston: Pucker Art Publications, 2002.
• Bak, Samuel, Henry F Knight, and Pucker Gallery. Beholding After : Samuel Bak's Art of H·o·p·e. Edited by Destiny M Barletta. Boston: Pucker Gallery, 2015.
• Baranik, Lisa E., Carrie S. Hurst, and Lillian T. Eby. “The Stigma of Being a Refugee: A Mixed-Method Study of Refugees’ Experiences of Vocational Stress.” Journal of vocational behavior 105 (2018): 116–130.
• Betts, Alexander. Survival Migration: Failed Governance and the Crisis of Displacement. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2013.
• Celinscak, Mark, and Curtis Hutt, eds. Artistic Representations of Suffering : Rights, Resistance, and Remembrance. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2021.
• Christopher, Emma, Cassandra Pybus, and Marcus Rediker. Many Middle Passages: Forced Migration and the Making of the Modern World. 1st ed. Vol. 5. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.
• Cohen, Gerald Daniel. In War’s Wake : Europe’s Displaced Persons in the Postwar Order. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
• Doña-Reveco, Cristián, "Del mediterráneo a Santiago, pasando por París y otras partes: un comentariosobre refugio y migración internacional" (2016).Latino/Latin American Studies Faculty Publications. 15.https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/latinamstudfacpub/15
• Dosenovich, Vojislav. “Adjustment of Displaced Persons ...” University of Nebraska at Omaha, 1953.
• Fewell, Danna Nolan, Samuel Bak, and Gary Allen Phillips. Icon of Loss : The Haunting Child of Samuel Bak. Boston: Pucker Art Publications, 2009.
• Finn, V., Doña-Reveco, C., & Feddersen, M. (2019, June 28). Chapter 3: Migration governance in South America: Regional approaches versus national laws. In A. Geddes, M.V. Espinoza, L. Hadj Abdou, & L. Brumat (Eds), (pp. 36-53 ). Edward Elgar Publishing Limited: Cheltenham and Northampton.
• Global Forced Migration, the Political Crisis of Our Time: a Minority Staff Report. Washington: U.S. Government Publishing Office, 2020.
• Hwang, Alexander Y. The Meaning of My Neighbor’s Faith : Interreligious Reflections on Immigration. Ed. Alexander Y. Hwang and Laura E. Alexander. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2019.
• Hochstein, Joseph M., and Murray S. Greenfield. The Jews’ Secret Fleet. 3rd ed. Jerusalem ;: Gefen, 1988.
• Kushner, Tony (Antony Robin Jeremy). Journeys from the Abyss : the Holocaust and Forced Migration from the 1880s to the Present. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2017.
• Langer, Lawrence L, and Samuel Bak. New Perceptions of Old Appearances in the Art of Samuel Bak. Boston: Pucker Art Publishing, 2004.
• Nasaw, David. The Last Million: Europe’s Displaced Persons from World War to Cold War. New York: Penguin Press, 2020.
• Refugee Imaginaries: Research Across the Humanities. Edinburgh University Press, 2019.
• Shephard, Ben. The Long Road Home: the Aftermath of the Second World War. 1st American ed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011.
• The Displaced-Persons Problem, a Collection of Recent Official Statements. Washington: [U.S. Govt. Print. Off.], 1947.
• Uschuk, Pamela. Refugee: Poems. Red Hen Press, 2022.

Exhibition research links:

• UNHRC – Refugee Statistics: unhcr.org/refugee-statistics
• IOM: iom.int
• Operational Data Portal: data.unhcr.org/en/situations
• Migration Policy Institute: migrationpolicy.org
• Migration Data Portal: migrationdataportal.org
• International Rescue Committee: rescue.org
• International Commission on Missing People: icmp.int
• Brookings Institution: brookings.edu/topics/migrants-refugees-and-internally-displaced-persons
• Pew Research Center: pewresearch.org/topic/immigration-migration/immigration-issues/refugees-asylum-seekers
• Indian Law Resource Center: indianlaw.org/safewomen
• Tribal Governance: ncai.org/policy-issues/tribal-governance
• Understanding Tribal Sovereignty: penn.museum/sites/expedition/understanding-tribal-sovereignty-the-native-american-rights-fund
• Native American Caucus: nativeamericancaucus.org/resources/tribal-sovereignty-history-and-the-law
• Myths and Realities of Tribal Sovereignty: scholar.harvard.edu/files/jsinger/files/myths_realities.pdf
• Haaland vs. Brackeen: theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/11/scotus-native-american-sovereignty-brackeen-v-haaland/672038/
• Landback: landback.org

Sponsors

Exhibition generously sponsored by Douglas County Visitor Improvement Fund Grant Award and Mutual of Omaha.