Alquimia III (Alchemy III)

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.