Magda Bolumar. Constellations: Paris

From the late 1950s on, Bolumar developed a unique artistic language and began exploring the limits of painting as a medium, approaching her canvases as material objects. In this way she developed her “arpillera” technique, creating textile works in which sewing, painting, and collage intertwine to give life to the artist's cosmic visions. Specifically, such technique involves taking a burlap canvas to which the artist attaches braids of varying thicknesses, defining a geometric structure that will serve as the framework around which she paints colour fields in oil. Each work thus resembles a meticulous construction in which gesture and material are inseparable from the artist’s overall vision.

These three-dimensional textile geometries stem from preparatory drawings in which nothing is left to chance. Indeed, it is on paper that the artist lays down her ideas in the form of sketches, which she later translates onto the canvas. The canvases are stretched onto frames or wooden panels, then painted and adorned with various domestic elements using drawing pins, the heads of which are painted white, creating a constellation of light dots. According to the artist, while the sketches are necessary for the spatial organization of each work, it is the materiality of the additional elements that completes the final composition. This meticulous process enhances the visual intensity of her works, giving the impression of a world in perpetual expansion, suspended between abstraction and figuration.

It becomes clear that this methodical work— which the artist has explored for over half a century—also leaves much room for intuition and testifies to a sensitivity towards materials and colours that stands outside the rationalism associated with the Spanish artistic avant-gardes of this era. In light of the lack of credibility and the invisibility of women artists' work under the Franco regime and, more broadly, in the post-war art world, it is even more notable that Bolumar's work was nevertheless exhibited in reputed venues and repeatedly noticed by critics, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s following exhibitions at the Sala Gaspar in Barcelona.

The intuition that guides Bolumar’s creative process, as well as the craftsmanship involved in the creation of her "arpilleras"— all "feminine" qualities fully embraced by the artist—nonetheless relegated her to the status of an outsider for most of her career.

Like certain figures of Spanish Informalism, such as Manolo Millares, Antonio Saura or Antoni Tàpies, the incisions made by Bolumar alter the pictorial surface. But unlike her peers (for the most part male), the resulting mesh of threads—like an exoskeleton—reinforces and enriches the canvas, bringing balance and order to the composition. The uniqueness of her work is also reflected in the sumptuous colour palette that unfolds in a range of hues, giving her work a timelessness detached from a specific era and style: faded greens, ochres, bright reds, and fields of royal blue are far removed from the chromatic austerity of her contemporaries. In this sense, her art is not just a response to a historical or cultural context but also an aesthetic quest for a timeless universe, where each colour and shape acquires a poetic and almost spiritual dimension.

While recent showcases of her work have helped to restore Bolumar's name within an art historical lineage, her work also deserves—if we apply a visionary fiction-based interpretative framework—to be approached through the lens of figuration. Inspired by astronomy and astrophysics, Bolumar traces constellations with great formal cohesion that literally and symbolically reflect the cosmogonies that inspire her, while elevating the harmonious forms found in nature. This ongoing exploration of the infinite, the invisible, and the celestial highlights a search for meaning and order within the chaotic and turbulent universe.

For example, the moons or planets that almost systematically punctuate the artist’s landscapes—recognized by the shrewd eye as spheres, often in blue or yellow, unframed by threads—signify the celestial space, giving her works an almost mystical dimension. They become symbols of a higher, perfect, and unalterable world, contrasting with the rough, organic textures of the canvas.

Completed the year after the death of the great American astronomer, Homenaje a Carl Sagan (Homage to Carl Sagan) particularly reflects the artist’s interest in the cosmos. Her curiosity about the stellar universe led her to follow the work of Carl Sagan (1934-1996), whom she admired for his significant contributions to popularizing the science. A driving force behind many scientific initiatives aimed at establishing contact with extraterrestrial life, Sagan had an unwavering belief in the idea of a universal balance. Far from gratuitous esotericism, Bolumar's interest lies in aligning her work with a tangible reality, albeit visionary. Homenaje a Carl Sagan (Homage to Carl Sagan), in addition to honouring a great scientist, thus reveals a fascinating dialogue between art and science, between matter and spirit.

From 1967 to 1968, Magda Bolumar moved to Paris with her family, thanks to a grant from the French Institute awarded to her husband, the Catalan sculptor Moisès Villèlia. During this time, she produced a series of oil portraits, burlaps adorned with raffia, and numerous drawings. Her artistic production in Paris drew inspiration from nature—an undeniable thread throughout her work—which she contemplated during her daily walks in Parisian parks. A selection of drawings and sketches made during this period is presented in the exhibition. These works reflect a pivotal moment in her career, marked by immersion in a new urban environment while remaining faithful to her natural and cosmic sources of inspiration. Above all, they reflect the evolution of her artistic reflection, moving from a simple observation of the natural world to a true inner and cosmic quest.

- Elise Lammer