Cartier Suspends Artist Beatriz Milhazes’ ‘Aquarium’ in Boston

In Cartier’s Newbury Street boutique, now through May 17, Brazilian artist Beatriz Milhazes’ monumental mobile Aquarium glints and glistens overhead. Cascading eight feet from the ceiling, the sculpture’s 15 strands incorporate precious, semiprecious, and ornamental stones, including diamonds, emeralds, rubies, sapphires, amethysts, and opals, as well as Akoya pearls, coral, black jade, turquoise, and more. This singular work is a translation of the kaleidoscopic colorful artistic signatures of Milhazes’ acclaimed collages, prints, and paintings.

Aquarium is part of the maison’s Artist meets Artisan project, and is the result of a two-year collaboration between Milhazes and the experts in Cartier’s workshops. For its creation, Milhazes was able to parse through unused stones as if developing a palette of paints. The piece was completed in 2010 and has since been exhibited in Miami, Paris, and New York. Now the Boston boutique envelops the large-scale, bejeweled piece. “We can observe all the details from up close, and a brightness and vibrancy from afar, as if observing an aquarium from a dream world,” Milhazes says of the lavish adornment, with “fascinating elements dancing in the space with different rhythms.”