Gallery highlight: Olga de Amaral’s Alquimia (triptico)

At the Fondation Cartier in Paris, people were recently lined up around the block to see the first major retrospective in Europe of the work of Olga de Amaral. Born and raised in Bogotà, Colombia, de Amaral has been pushing the boundaries of textile and fiber art since the 1960s, helping to establish the medium as a form of sculpture.

You can experience her mesmerizing work in Honolulu. Now on view in Past-Forward: Modern and Contemporary Art from HoMA’s Collection is the wall hanging Alquimia (triptico), an expanse of squares of goldleaf-coated Japanese paper alive with saffron-colored linen threads. The work is part of the artist’s Alquimia (Alchemy) series, which explores the significance of gold. Understood as connected to the sun, gold was an important material of pre-Columbian culture and worship. It was also the object of colonial plunder for centuries.

“As I build these surfaces, I create spaces of meditation, contemplation, and reflection,” de Amaral said of the series, adding that they “form one presence, one tone, speaking to the texture of time.” 

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Olga de Amaral (Colombian, b. 1932). Alquimia (tríptico), 1989. Linen, gesso, acrylic, Japanese paper and gold leaf. Gift of The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, 2011, and gift of The Dell Family and MSD Capital, L.P. (TCM.2008.11a-c)