Feather Necklace

The feather necklace is one of the defining works of Mexican Modernism. Held by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the repeating silver feather forms run as a continuous, articulated band over the chest. Made betweeen 1943 and 1948, it belongs to the years when Héctor Aguilar was at the peak of his creative genius and boldly defining his own voice, and place, in the Taxco silver renaissance.

The necklace is made of sterling silver set with obsidian. The black volcanic stone, quarried in Mexico, gives the piece its grounding contrast: cool dark insets against the worked silver feathers, a pairing of local material and modern form that the Taxco workshops made their own.

In the mid-1940s, when this necklace was made, Aguilar's Taller Borda was turning out some of thr heaviest, most sculptural silver the world had seen, and this necklace is a rare but classic example of his direction.

Los Angeles County Museum of ArtLos Angeles, California

Feathers Necklace

Accession M.2013.4.18. Official museum record Photo: Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

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