Edgar Negret was born in Popayán in 1920 and has been acknowledge as one of the initiatiors of the abstractionism in Colombia with Eduardo Ramírez Villamizar y Hugo Martínez González. He began his career at the School of Fine Arts of Cali in 1938. During the ’50s he made several travels to New York and some European cities, like Barcelona, Paris, and Madrid. Thanks to these displacements he knew many artists that were researching different plastic languages related to abstractionism. Thanks to these artistic interchanges, Negret made his series Magical Objects, his first sculptures to embrace abstraction and its potentiality. 

At a general level, Negret’s artworks have been characterized by large formats and industrial materials of geometric forms that reflect upon natural, historical, or different creations that can be made with visual frames. This last feature is the most explored in the different series made by Negret. The material quest is complemented by an election of vibrant colors. The artwork of the Colombian sculpture has an emotional level that contrasts with the coldness of the industrial material. Thanks to this distinction, the artist can be made an exploration of prehispanic motifs, especially the ones related to the Inca culture. His abstract language also reflects history and its impact on the present.