Jewish artist’s heritage inspires 21-foot Marble Arch sculpture

A Jewish artist from London has described how his heritage helped create a 21-foot sculpture that was this week displayed at Marble Arch in the centre of the city.

David Breuer-Weil said his latest bronze ‘Flight’ – which shows a flying man ‘taking off’ from the London landmark – was “intimately connected with my Jewish upbringing”.

He said: “Many of my sculptures, paintings and drawings have images of people attached to one another with straps or chords. These express either familial relationships or make visible the usually invisible connections that exist between people and situations.

“I lay tefillin every day and it gives me an inexpressible sense of connection and comfort. My new piece is very strongly influenced by that daily event. In the sculpture the figure is connected to the earth and to his past through these vast umbilical chords. These allow him to soar into the sky.”

The artist’s installations may be familiar to Londoners, having featured in Victoria, King’s Cross and the West End, but he rose to prominence with exhibitions of vast painted canvasses, collectively called ‘The Projects.’

In 2016-17 he exhibited alongside Edmund de Waal and Hans Coper at the Jewish Museum in Camden, and last year he recalled how he stumbled upon the significance of an ancient Jewish candle-holder being exhibited at an exclusive arts fair in Maastricht.

The Hampstead artist said he came across the “visually-striking, star-shaped lamp” last week and has since learned that it is one of only three such examples to have survived from the reign of King Herod.