Nineteen
2020
pencil and gold leaf on paper
84.1 x 59.4 cm
Trying to bring some light into an unprecedented and tragic situation, on day one of isolation Breuer-Weil started a series of golden drawings that take a great deal of time to produce, a form of meditation. Executed in pencil on paper with gold leaf, they reflect different aspects of the current world pandemic and the human condition more generally. The series is partly inspired by medieval apocalyptic manuscripts that were often illuminated by gold leaf to give an other-worldly sense of reality, and were often produced in periods of great upheaval.
“Years ago I worked for a time at the department of Western and Oriental Manuscripts at Sotheby’s and was exposed to illuminated manuscripts in which religious, poetic and expressive symbolic images frequently dealt with issues comparable to the current crisis. I was always inspired by the condensed manner in which these manuscripts expressed the most powerful emotions and concepts”.
