Part of a major series of books PROGETTO VENTIVENTI (PROJECT TWENTY TWENTY) about the impact of Covid-19 on contemporary artists, David Breuer-Weil Golden Drawings records the series of 66 Golden Drawings executed by the London artist during the months of Lockdown from March 20th until July 2020. According to the publisher, Gli Ori, it constitutes a unique monument to these strange and difficult times. Gli Ori states the project is an “effort to collect and assemble fragments of the intimate and personal on paper…restoring a reality superior to that of “social distancing”. Executed in gold leaf and pencil on paper this large body of work captures many of the preoccupations of this unique time and they are a daily record of Breuer-Weil having caught Covid-19 on March 19th and his experience. In the process the artist made one drawing almost every day and recorded his thoughts at the time in the form of a diary, published alongside the drawings. “Drawing literally became a lifesaver for me. It gave my days hope and structure. The drawings are filled with the things that became most important overnight: breath, water, family, hope, dreams and faith in the future. They also reference earlier times that humanity has battled against and prevailed over pandemics. I think of medieval gold ground manuscripts from times of plague and upheaval.”
The book’s cover image, number FORTY FIVE, pays tribute to the applause for the NHS every Thursday night during Lockdown, whilst drawing SIXTY SIX references the tragic killing of George Floyd.
Breuer-Weil has stated: “Sometimes art is a valuable tool to express the thoughts and feelings of a moment in time, no matter how difficult. You can record the facts of history but only art and literature can record what we felt at the time, the uncanny reality.”
Reproduced in the Times Literary Supplement (February 2021), recommended by FAD Magazine as one of the top five art books to read about artists and exhibitions (February 2021) and featured inOur Culture Mag (February 2021).
“……a stunning reflection on life during the pandemic”, Katherine Keener, Art Critique (February 2021).
www.gliori.it
ISBN 978-88-7336-811-3
