Abdu'l Baha by Max Pollak

Abdul Baha by Max Pollak

Abdu'l Baha

Max Pollak

Please call us at 707-546-7352 or email artannex@aol.com to purchase this item.
Title

Abdu'l Baha

 
Artist

Max Pollak

  1886 - 1970 (biography)
Year
c. 1920  
Technique
drypoint 
Image Size
19 7/8 x 12 11/16" image size 
Signature
pencil, lower right, in image 
Edition Size
(around 6 impressions; two known) 
Annotations
pencil titled in lower left corner, followed by editioning: "Edit. printed a. 6" 
Reference
 
Paper
pink-tinted wove 
State
published 
Publisher
artist 
Inventory ID
23284 
Price
$300.00 
Description

Abdul Baha - traditionally spelled 'Abdu'l-Bahá (1844 - 1921) - was the eldest son and successor of Bahá'u'lláh (1817 - 1892), the Persian nobelman and founder of the Bahá'i faith, known for promoting universal peace. The Bahá'i faith sprang from the Bábism teachings, brought to the people of Persia (now Iran) by The Báb, a young merchant in the early 19th century who believed he was a messenger of God. Abdul Baha was considered the third and final central figure of the Bahá'i religion.

(exerpted from "The Life of Abdul-Baha by Moojan Momen, 1995) "Baha set off for New York on 25 March 1912, arriving on 11 April. He visited Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Washington D.C., going back to New York by 11 May. For the next few months he remained in New York with occasional brief visits to Boston, Philadelphia, and a number of smaller towns as well as the Lake Mohonk Peace Conference. In August he began a more extensive journey, starting in New Hampshire and the Green Acre School in Maine and going on to Montreal, Buffalo, Chicago, Kenosha, and Minneapolis. He traveled west, reaching San Francisco at the beginning of October. In California he visited Oakland, Palo Alto, and Los Angeles before heading back eastward on 26 October. He traveled through Chicago, Cincinnati, Washington D. C., and Baltimore to New York. On 5 December he set sail from New York, arriving in Liverpool on 13 December. From Liverpool he went to London, where he remained until 21 January 1913 with a number of trips to Oxford, Edinburgh, and Bristol. In Paris, `Abdu'l-Bahá stayed two months before making a journey to Stuttgart, Budapest, and Vienna. After another six weeks in Paris, he left for Marseilles on 12 June and set sail for Port Said the next day. From 13 June until 2 December he remained in Egypt and then returned to Haifa.

The First World War broke out in the year after `Abdu'l-Bahá's return from his western journeys. For a time, `Abdu'l-Bahá moved most of the Bahá'ís of the Haifa-Akka area to the Druze village of Abú-Sinán, because of the threat of Allied bombardment of the coast. Later the danger to `Abdu'l-Bahá's person was renewed through the threats of the Turkish commander Jamál (Cemal) Páshá. There was also famine in Palestine. Eventually the war years passed and the British Mandate over Palestine brought the threat to `Abdu'l-Bahá to an end. His final years saw a growing stream of visitors and pilgrims from all parts of the world who came to Haifa to see him. He was awarded a knighthood by the British government on 27 April 1920. `Abdu'l-Bahá passed away on 28 November 1921 and was buried following a large public funeral in a room in the Shrine of the Bab on Mount Carmel."

Today, followers of Bahá'i continue to practice and tend to the gardens on Mount Carmel, Israel, where both Bahá'u'llàh and Abdu'l Baha's remains are interred in a shrine at the garden's center.

It's unclear if Max Pollak met Baha, but he was living in Europe at the time of Baha's death in 1921.

Max Pollak was born in Czechoslovakia and raised in Vienna, Austria. A printmaker with a long and productive career, his intaglio subjects included genre, land and cityscapes, and portraits from throughout Europe, the Holy Land, the United States, and Latin America.

 

Please call us at 707-546-7352 or email artannex@aol.com to purchase this item.