Eyewash
1958-1959
Film, 00:06:00 .
Materials: 16 mm film transferred to dvd, black & white
Collection: Courtesy of Kate Flax, Estate of the artist & GB Agency, Paris.
In films like 'Recreation' (1956 – 57) and 'Eyewash' (1959), Breer intercut shots of household objects with bright, abstract patterns arranged contrapuntally. Breer’s work owes a debt to Hans Richter, Oskar Fischinger, and László Moholy-Nagy, but it is quicker, more violent and jagged, highlighting the rough edges. Breer, in other words, differed from his predecessors by embracing some of the impulsiveness of Abstract Expressionism and the shifting, nerve-racking time signatures of bebop and free jazz.