Path of Gold

Path of Gold traces the significance and use of gold as an art historical phenomenon, from early cultures to the present day. In periods of fundamental shifts in value and spiritual reorientation, gold appears consistently as a meaningful element: the ultimate precious metal always symbolised temporal as well as spiritual values. In painting, gold always indicates a change, liberation, and transmutation.

Gold as a colour and means of artistic expression of utmost importance also links Swiss artists Heinrich Eichmann (1915-1970) and Barbara Diethelm, born in 1962. Eichmann created numerous plates and murals in different architectural contexts, of which the best-known are his “Gold Paintings.” In her work, Diethelm, who also works as a colour researcher, pursues the creative forces of nature and developed a new gold-coloured substance. Her paintings refer to concrete places where layers of human cultural development overlap and come to the fore.

In this book, published in conjunction with an exhibition at Helmhaus Zurich in spring 2022, full colour reproductions of Eichmann’s and Diethelm’s works are supplemented with texts by artist Barbara Diethelm, art historian Guido Magnaguagno, curator Daniel Morgenthaler, and the South African author and conservationist Linda Tucker.