Two different artists, with a link about leaving their home country, in addition to their artistic style.

Tess Jaray was born in Vienna in 1937, only to leave for England when her parents emigrated in 1938.  She came from a creative and scientific family with her father being a chemical engineer and industrial inventor and her aunt being the gallerist Lea Bondi Jaray who brought many of the German Expressionists to London.

Ernsto Briel was born six years later than Jaray in Cuba, in 1943, and was inspired by the geometric and optical art of Latin America, but as a young gay guy in Cuba had a difficult time until he could leave in 1980, spending the rest of his life in New York until his death in 1992. 

Sotheby’s S|2 has a strategy which is to show two different artists, complimentary but contrasting, in the one exhibition, such as the previous exhibition on Yuko Nasaki and Kim Lim.

The upper floor is calm, sedate and relatively calm, with the works of Tess Jaray.  Walk down the staircase into the dark lower level room and you enter a riot of black and white optical works by Ernesto Briel in pen and ink which require detailed examination to see the optical effects that Jaray is exploring.   An astonishing contrast, which is emphasised by the dark walls and the excellent, exemplary lighting design which spots the works with very little reflection (and which some of our national galleries could take inspiration from).

An interesting contrast between the two artists and it is great to see Briel’s work gaining greater exposure, reflecting his importance as one of the most innovative Cuban artists.