'Olga de Amaral Renders Delicate Threads Emphatically Monumental' – Art in America

29 October 2024

For decades, Olga de Amaral has created works in fiber that have a certain presence to them. Whether they are just a few inches tall or more than 11 feet, hanging from the ceiling or cascading onto the floor, there’s a certain heftiness and monumentality to her work: threads here are no longer easy to overlook. Instead, they are the source of endless possibilities and delight.

Amaral’s career retrospective at the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris, on view through March 17, features more than 80 of the textile-based works she’s been making since the mid-1960s. On the ground floor, visitors are greeted with dozens of Amaral’s eye-catching mature works, separated into two installations. But to understand how Amaral got there, it’s essential to see her earlier tactile experiments by descending into the basement level, which architect Lina Ghotmeh has transformed into a chasm meant to mimic a night sky, with elliptical-shaped galleries and unfinished walls that are meant to be touched.

In this void of textured spackle, Amaral’s colorful tapestries—in warm and vibrant shades of red, orange, pink, purple, silver, copper, and gold—glow with saturation. Take Elementos rojo en fuego (Red elements on fire), from 1973/1981, an eight-foot-tall work made of various squares of crimson, ochre, marigold, and magenta woven into a grid. No two sections are alike; it’s as if you’re witnessing a massive fire as it crackles and sets the night ablaze.

Read the full review by Maximilíano Durón via Art in America.