Reynal studied the ancient art of stone mosaic as an apprentice in Paris in the early 1930s, and went on to pioneer a looser, more suggestive mode of production in the medium. Thanks to travels that took her across what she described as "most of the surface of the earth," her visual vocabulary drew on cultural influences from the Byzantine period to the present, from historical Mexican and Greek civilizations to the modern American Southwest. The titles of many of her works suggest mythological or mystical subjects, described by a contemporary as "omens, auguries, and the revelation of hidden knowledge."
Gallery label from Soldier, Spectre, Shaman: The Figure and the Second World War, October 24, 2015-March 20, 2016.