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Olga de Amaral

Olga de Amaral spins base matter into fields of color and weaves tectonic lines through space, unselfconsciously testing the borders between crafted object and the work of art. From the flat surfaces of tapestry through to resolutely three-dimensional sculptural forms made from fibre, the Colombian artist’s work spans more than 60 years, in turn reaching even further back to the spiritual qualities and ancient craquelure of medieval icon paintings or else the rigour and simplicity of the modernist grid, as if run through a loom. Developing her own tools and techniques, while relying on the hand for her strip-woven expanses of wool, linen and cotton, Amaral has also knotted reams of horsehair together and bolstered her fabric works through a painterly application of gesso or stucco, often highlighting the reverse, or foregrounding the edges. Working not only on the floor or the wall, Amaral carves up interiors with her hanging tapestries, creates floating formations from yarn or plastic, while following nature’s lead for outdoor works such as Hojarascas (Dried Leaves), begun in the 1970s, or working at architectural scale, for the creation of the six-story façade commission, El Gran Muro (The Great Wall), in 1976.

Amaral’s travels in the 1950s and ’60s are reflected in her wide range of international influences. After an encounter with the Japanese technique of ‘kintsugi’ at the ceramics studio of British potter Lucie Rie in 1970, for example, Amaral began a series of Fragmentos Completos (Complete Fragments) employing gold leaf, layered and intertwined within the fabric of her hand-woven textiles. Amaral’s work also references religious and ceremonial dimensions prescribed to gold through the pre-Columbian worship of the substance, especially in her Alquimia (Alchemy) works begun in 1984, which reclaim the notion of a material indelibly connected to the sun and the earth, but equally plundered from her country over many centuries. During a lecture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2003, she said: “As I build these surfaces, I create spaces of meditation, contemplation and reflection… Tapestry, fibres, strands, units, cords, all are transparent layers with their own meanings, revealing and hiding each other to make one presence, one tone that speaks about the texture of time.”

Olga de Amaral was born Olga Ceballos Vélez in Bogotá, Colombia in 1932, where she continues to live and work. She studied Architectural Drafting at the Colegio Mayor de Cundinamarca in Bogotá, leaving for the USA in 1952 to study textiles at the Cranbrook Academy of Art outside of Detroit, Michigan. By the 1960s she was herself a teacher at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine and was included in a group exhibition at MoMA, New York entitled Wall Hangings, before staging a solo show, entitled Woven Walls, at New York’s Museum of Arts and Design in 1970. After living in Barcelona and Paris in the early 1970s she returned to Colombia, representing her country at the Venice Biennale in 1986 and receiving her first major survey show at the city’s Museo de Arte Moderno in 1993. Her work is in many major collections worldwide, including the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA; Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX, USA; Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, USA; Cranbrook Art Museum, Detroit, MI, USA; De Young Museum, San Francisco, CA, USA; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA; Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY, USA; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, USA; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA; Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France; Museo Nacional, Bogotá, Colombia; American Craft Museum, New York, NY, USA; The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan; Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI, USA; San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX, USA; Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH, USA; and Tate Collection, London, UK.

 

Recent, current and forthcoming projects

'"Olga de Amaral," Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris, France, 12 October 2024 - 17 March 2025

"Olga de Amaral: Everything is Construction and Color," Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH, USA, 29 August 2024 - 12 January 2025

"Straniere Ovunque - Foreigners Everywhere," Giardini Pavilion, 60th Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy, 20 April - 24 November, 2024

 

 

 

Cesta lunar 50B

Olga de Amaral
Cesta lunar 50B

1991/2017
Linen, gesso, acrylic, platinum and gold leaf
350 x 220 x 3 cm
137 3/4 x 86 5/8 x 1 1/8 in
 

Cesta lunar 50B

Olga de Amaral
Cesta lunar 50B

1991/2017
Detail

Moya F

Olga de Amaral
Moya F

2013
Linen, gesso and acrylic
80 x 89 cm
31 1/2 x 35 in

Tierra y fibra 2

Olga de Amaral
Tierra y fibra 2

1988
Horsehair and Wool
96.5 x 132.1 x 3.8 cm
38 x 52 x 1 1/2 in
 

Cuarzo 1

Olga de Amaral
Cuarzo 1

2015
Linen, gesso and acrylic
102.2 x 59.1 x 2.5 cm
40 1/4 x 23 1/4 x 1 in
Installed: 102.2 x 59.1 x 16 cm
Installed: 40 1/4 x 23 1/4 x 6 1/4 in

Brumas Q R and T

Olga de Amaral
Brumas Q R and T

2014
Acrylic, gesso and cotton on wood
Installation of three artworks

Olga de Amaral: To Weave a Rock

Olga de Amaral
Olga de Amaral: To Weave a Rock

Installation image 
Cranbrook Art Museum, Detroit, MI, USA
30 October 2021 - 13 February 2022
Photo by PD Rearick, Courtesy Cranbrook Art Museum

1972

Olga de Amaral
1972

The Museum of Modern Art, Bogotá, Colombia; Photograph by Diana Witlin

Alchemy 50

Olga de Amaral
Alchemy 50

1987
Canvas, gesso, gold leaf and acrylic paint
165 x 15 cm
Collection of Tate, UK

Muro tejido terruño 3 [Woven Wall Homestead]

Olga de Amaral
Muro tejido terruño 3 [Woven Wall Homestead]

1969
Wool
210 x 137 cm
82 5/8 x 53 7/8 in

Estelas

Olga de Amaral
Estelas

Installation of Estelas 19, 58, 59, 60, and 66

Estela 19

Olga de Amaral
Estela 19

Detail of Estela 19, 1996

Lienzo B and Lienzo A

Olga de Amaral
Lienzo B and Lienzo A

2014
Linen, plaster and acrylic
204.5 x 95.3 cm, 80 1/2 x 37 1/2 in and
215.9 x 94.9 cm, 85 x 37 3/8 in

Alquimia XVII

Olga de Amaral
Alquimia XVII

1984
Linen, gesso, gold and paint;
201 x 90 cm
79 x 35 1/2 in
Collection of the Cranbrook Art Museum, Detroit, MI, USA; Photograph by P. D. Rearick

Luz blanca [White Light]

Olga de Amaral
Luz blanca [White Light]

1969/2010
Polyethylene
350 x 155 cm
37 3/4 x 61 in

Luz blanca [White Light]

Olga de Amaral
Luz blanca [White Light]

1969/2010
Detail

Riscos IV

Olga de Amaral
Riscos IV

1987
Wool and horsehair
220 × 200 × 8.9 cm
86 5/8 × 78 3/4 × 3 1/2 in
Collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York
Currently on view 

Nudo 19 (turquesa)

Olga de Amaral
Nudo 19 (turquesa)

2014
Linen, plaster and acrylic
300 x 25 x 25 cm
118 1/8 x 9 7/8 x 9 7/8 in

Nudo 19 (turquesa)

Olga de Amaral
Nudo 19 (turquesa)

2014
Linen, plaster and acrylic

detail

Olga de Amaral: To Weave a Rock

Olga de Amaral
Olga de Amaral: To Weave a Rock

Installation image
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, USA
25 July - 19 September 2021
Photography Courtesy MFAH

Naturaleza Mora, 1979 - 1981

Olga de Amaral
Naturaleza Mora, 1979 - 1981

Cotton, linen and horsehair
130 x 40 cm
51 1/8 x 15 3/4 in

Umbra Verde

Olga de Amaral
Umbra Verde

Linen, Japanese paper, gesso, acrylic and palladium
153 x 50 x 1.3 cm
60 1/4 x 19 5/8 x 0 1/2 in

Museum Exhibitions

Exhibitions

  1. Olga de Amaral - past exhibition

    Olga de Amaral

    23 September – 29 October 2022

  2. Olga de Amaral: The Elements - past exhibition

    Olga de Amaral: The Elements

    2 November – 18 December 2021

  3. Olga de Amaral - past exhibition

    Olga de Amaral

    12 August – 5 September 2021

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  1. Olga de Amaral

    Olga de Amaral

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