Bronislaw M. Bak was born September 3, 1922, in Leszno, Poland, and grew up in the pre-war era in the town of Rawicz, Poland. In 1939 at the age of 17, he was appointed as a Cadet in the Polish army and fought in the first battles of World War II against the German invasion of Poland. Captured, he became a prisoner of war in Germany until 1943. He was young and rebellious and often found means to escape only to be captured later and returned to the German labor camps and farms. After a final unsuccessful escape attempt, he was placed in the Schirmeck—Strutthoff concentration camp, where he remained an inmate until the end of the war.
Like thousands of other former prisoners, he chose to remain in Germany as a “Displaced Person” In 1946 he enrolled in an art school, the Freie Akademie, Mannheim, Germany and studied under Paul Berger—Bergner earning a MFA equivalent in 1950. In 1951 he won the Pfalzpreis in a regional competition and was awarded a years fellowship at the Kuenstlerhaus in Koblenz, Germany, where he was introduced to stained glass design.
In 1952, Bronislaw Bak, his wife and fellow artist Hedi, along with their two sons immigrated to the United States and settled in Chicago. Beginning as a stained glass window designer, he later accepted a teaching position at St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota, in 1958. He taught an experimental workshop in two and three-dimensional design. He also taught classes in drawing and printmaking. From 1962—67, he was Assistant Professor of Art in the art department of Dominican College, in Racine, Wisconsin. Where he taught two and three dimensional design, drawing, painting, and printmaking.
He returned to Chicago in 1967, where he and his wife, Hedi, established Studio 22, Inc., Printmakers Workshop. Beginning in a storefront on Lincoln Ave., the shop later expanded into a large three story building on Ontario St., where they conducted classes, organized a gallery and provided an important center for Chicago artists. In March of 1970, after undergoing major surgery, Bronislaw and Hedi Bak closed Studio 22 and moved to Southern France. After three years, he returned to the United States where he accepted a position as Associate Professor of Art at Georgia Southern College in Statesboro. At GSC he taught two and three dimensional design, color theory and design for the environment. He taught at Georgia Southern until his death in 1981. His papers are in the permanent collections at Georgia Southern University.
Bruno Bak believed that experimentation is the essence of art. He summarizes this in his own words:
“It is my conviction that we cannot lead our action by intuition alone. Creativity means shaping, means molding, and it requires all the potential – intuitive and rational. Especially in times of massive misunderstandings, of enormous and contradictory information, one has to employ all the faculties.
It is the formulation of a proper question which may lead to an answer; and aesthetics lie somewhere between the formulation and the answer. I believe that one has to engage in a constant search; for only this search will give one a chance to find quality – which is synonymous with fullness and beauty. Paintings, sculpture, graphics are all accidentals – good painting, good sculpture, and good graphic is art.”
(Statement from a 1978 brochure of his exhibit at the County College of Morris in New Jersey)