Image Details

Pucker/Safrai Gallery, Boston

King David plucks a lyre in a luxurious tapestry by Shraga Weil speckled with fine gold thread. Decisive use of line and areas of textured color define the four-foot by five-foot work, which is one of an edition of 12 tapestries adapted from a lithograph by the artist in 1982.

Cubist influences are clear in the rearrangement of objects into planes. For example, the blue table and bench supporting King David resemble similar distortions in still lifes by the French cubist, Georges Braque. The red curtain behind the king, the blue sky above him containing sun and moon, and the architectural frame of the tapestry all appear as if in the same plane. Dramatic contrasts in color help distinguish background from foreground.

A Czech-born Israeli artist, Weil is best known for his lithographs and serigraphs on biblical and literary themes.