Olga de Amaral (Colombian, born 1932)
Bogotá, Columbia
Alquimia III (Alchemy III)
INV-6503
Olga de Amaral (Colombian, born 1932)
Bogotá, Columbia1983
Alquimia III (Alchemy III)
Olga de Amaral (Colombian, born 1932) Bogotá, Columbia →20th Centurytextilefiber art
Date
1983
Medium
Strips of linen and cotton, plain weave with exposed warps; applied gesso; painted with gold leaf and pigment; joined by knotted extended ground weft fringe
Dimensions
204.5 × 79.4 cm (80 1/2 × 31 1/4 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Nicole Williams Contemporary Textile Fund
Alquimia III comes from Olga de Amaral’s largest series of more than 40 works on the subject of alchemy, which she began in the early 1980s. The work’s title refers to pseudoscientific attempts to turn cheap metal into pure gold. In Amaral’s hands, simple materials—in this case, linen, cotton, and pigment—are transformed into something valuable by artistry and the addition of gold leaf. She was inspired by the Japanese practice of kintsugi, in which artisans repair broken pottery by sealing the cracks with gold, thus celebrating imperfections.
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