Cartier Foundation, Paris – From October 12, 2024 to March 16, 2025
Olga de Amaral, a pioneer of Fiber Art , has been redefining textiles since the 1960s, imbuing them with a sculptural and mystical dimension. The Fondation Cartier pays tribute to her with a major retrospective—the first in Europe—that unfolds a career where thread, material, and light intertwine in vibrant landscapes.
Her monumental works with golden surfaces transform textiles into a hybrid medium, somewhere between painting, sculpture, and installation. Her meticulous and alchemical technique pushes the boundaries of the material to create pieces where each thread becomes a part of itself.
Matter as language
From her early days at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in the United States, Amaral distinguished herself with an approach that combined structure and texture. While her teacher, Marianne Strengell, instilled in her the importance of the textile grid, Olga de Amaral transcended it by exploring unexpected mixtures of materials. Linen, cotton, horsehair, and paper generated the first pieces in which structural order was abandoned in favor of a dazzling formal freedom.
Amaral's technique relies on the transformation of materials: gesso to stiffen textiles, gold or palladium leaf to capture and reflect light. The textile is metamorphosed into a brilliant, shimmering screen.
In the Brumas or Estelas series, floating forms and dense textures create abstract landscapes, inviting the viewer to a contemplative immersion.
A sensory experience at the Cartier Foundation
The exhibition, designed by renowned architect Lina Ghotmeh, reveals the full spatial power of Olga de Amaral's work. The rooms play with contrasts of scale and light to highlight the artist's evolution.
On the ground floor, visitors discover his historical works from the 1960s and 1970s, never before exhibited outside of Colombia. Here, the textiles break free from the wall: some pieces float while others rise into massive structures. The artist's audacity defies the two-dimensionality of textiles.
At the heart of the exhibition, the gilded works dazzle. In the Oro and Alquimia series, gold leaf applied to the fibers creates a mystical effect. The material comes alive, its reflection shifting with each step of the visitor. Every movement becomes a unique encounter.
The exhibition concludes with her recent creations, where Amaral explores color with a new intensity. Bursts of cobalt blue, deep red, and solar yellow explode on textured surfaces. These compositions reveal an artist in search of renewal, capable of embracing abstraction while remaining grounded in exemplary artisanal rigor.
The influence of Olga de Amaral: An artist beyond time
Olga de Amaral rejects imposed categories. Her works are neither tapestries, nor sculptures, nor paintings, but a subtle blend of all of these. Her influence extends beyond textile art to inspire contemporary artists in diverse fields, from architecture to design.
The exhibition at the Fondation Cartier recalls Amaral's decisive role in the emergence of Fiber Art , alongside Sheila Hicks and Magdalena Abakanowicz. But above all, it reveals an artist for whom material, color, and light are the tools of a universal visual poetry.
For more information: Cartier Foundation.
