With Ewa Brachel's graphics, first you notice their painterly quality. Dictated by the print process of the medium and her personal passion and creative view. The artist begins work on each new graphic with multicoloured, tempera studies, from which she selects and transposes selected elements into a range of velvety greys. This process allows for a range of artistic possibilities, including embracing the ‘happy accidents’ that occur within the print process. The final effect is a painterly softness, the antithesis of the subject matter. Images of industrialised landscapes, railway stations, machines and devices are all given a poetic view in Ewa Brachel's aquatints.

Andrzej Pollo, an excerpt from the review of the graphic exhibition by Ewa Brachel at the TPSP in Kraków, 1972

The TPSP Gallery in Nowa Huta also includes graphics that create a different world of feelings! Ewa Brachel is reserved, despite the fact that her main topic was technology, machines and the industrial and urban landscape. Ewa Brachel immerses these not naturally aesthetic objects in an aura of beauty and lyricism. Her aquatints are full of delicate greys, with strong imagery. They testify to at least two of the author's traits: sensitivity and quite clearly - despite the short period of her creative work - a crystallised vision. This does not mean, however, that Brachel will not change her forms of expression one day. However, it seems that these changes will be of an evolutionary nature.

Jerzy Madeyski, Trotting in the galleries, press review, 1972

By remaining faithful to the circle of ideas that emerged during her studies - the world of everyday objects, the landscape, its fragments and close-ups, the space disturbed by industrial devices - she was able to give the subject matter a symbolic and metaphorical significance. In her aquatints things have multiple meanings, space is expressed not only by distance. Objects become figures, space becomes a state, hence the dramatic nature of the prints and a specific mood. I think this young artist, developing with an original vision, there is a vivid, creative imagination, innate intelligence and diligence.

Prof. Mieczysław Wejman, a fragment of the opinion on the artistic qualifications of Ewa Brachel, 1973

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Short journey
Aquatint, 1970s

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Drip
Aquatint, 1970s

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Illustration to Broniewski's poetry
Aquatint, 1970s