The wind quivers beneath horsehair, earth glows red under wool, and gold and leaves fall softly; everything hangs by a thread. For Olga de Amaral, weaving became far more than a craft. From her weaver's fingers emerge twilights, autumns, quarries veined with gold and coal-black mines, landscapes of the Moon, and distant stars. Each tapestry is a world unto itself. The Fondation Cartier surrenders to these worlds all winter, until March 16, 2025, to the delight of crowds discovering this unknown artist's work.

In Colombia, her native land which she never left, Amaral is a celebrity in textile art – in art, period. In France, no one knew of her before this revelatory retrospective, except for a few curious observers who had noticed her work in the Decorum exhibition at the Paris Museum of Modern Art in 2013.

Rich with 80 works, most of which had never crossed the Atlantic, the exhibition consecrates a 92-year-old creator who stands as an equal to American artist Sheila Hicks. Well-known in France, the latter has also explored every possible thread of creation. Like Hicks, the Colombian artist often drew inspiration from pre-Columbian weaving techniques, which are part of her heritage. From the traditional Andean qipu (knotted ropes used to "write" counts or genealogies), she has learned an essential lesson: "Threads are like words for me," she has said.

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