A Selection of Colombian Contemporary Art to Benefit Vivarte
60
Olga de Amaral
Umbra 53
- Estimate
- $140,000 - 180,000
$449,000
Lot Details
linen, gesso, acrylic and gold leaf
2007
59 x 39 3/8 in. (149.9 x 100 cm)
Titled, signed and dated "Unbra 53 Olga de Amaral 2007" on the reverse.
Specialist
Full-Cataloguing
Catalogue Essay
This stunning and sculptural textile, Umbra 53, 2007, by
Colombian Olga de Amaral is undoubtedly an extraordinary
example of her ravishing, and innovative tapestries. These
tapestries have come to represent the boundless possibilities
of materials and artistic language used in her oeuvre. Shortly
after studying textiles at Cranbrook, she returned to Colombia
and began rediscovering the peasant crafts as well as the
different looms and materials they used, a finding that led her
to start her textile studio. It wasn’t until a trip to Peru that she
began exploring the aesthetics of textiles in Andean and
Pre-Columbian cultures, much in the same way many
Western artists had studied and found inspiration in paintings
and frescoes. For Amaral the Baroque altar churches in that
region—with their dense, golden, and ornate features—were
reminiscent of the importance of gold in the Pre-Columbian
cultures, and as a result the Andes occupy a privileged place
in Olga’s artistic territory. This trip also inspired her to test
different fibers, woven strips, and braided variations that
would lead her to a life-long study and understanding of the
feel of fiber, the magic of texture, and the chromatic
possibilities of prepared and natural dies. This exploration
enabled her to extend the way she used threads and fibers.
Soon after she began incorporating gold leaf into the texture
of her work and weaving heavy surfaces on to pre-woven rolls
of fiber, like the one we see here in the present lot. This
incredible work also follows the large formats Amaral has
often experimented with, a scale that reflects a boldness that
enabled her to achieve ingenious visual forms of textiles with
consistent textures, into which she has even incorporated
horsehair and plastic. The sculptural proportions of this work
are achieved by the sheer volume and scale of it. The result
are cutting-edge elements that ultimately communicate the
“grace of [these] full-scale works, resulting in the synthesis of
a language which gave her tapestry a new ‘fine-arts’ quality”
(L. Smith Edward, ed., Olga de Amaral—The Mantle of
Memory, Somogy: Paris, p. 35).
Colombian Olga de Amaral is undoubtedly an extraordinary
example of her ravishing, and innovative tapestries. These
tapestries have come to represent the boundless possibilities
of materials and artistic language used in her oeuvre. Shortly
after studying textiles at Cranbrook, she returned to Colombia
and began rediscovering the peasant crafts as well as the
different looms and materials they used, a finding that led her
to start her textile studio. It wasn’t until a trip to Peru that she
began exploring the aesthetics of textiles in Andean and
Pre-Columbian cultures, much in the same way many
Western artists had studied and found inspiration in paintings
and frescoes. For Amaral the Baroque altar churches in that
region—with their dense, golden, and ornate features—were
reminiscent of the importance of gold in the Pre-Columbian
cultures, and as a result the Andes occupy a privileged place
in Olga’s artistic territory. This trip also inspired her to test
different fibers, woven strips, and braided variations that
would lead her to a life-long study and understanding of the
feel of fiber, the magic of texture, and the chromatic
possibilities of prepared and natural dies. This exploration
enabled her to extend the way she used threads and fibers.
Soon after she began incorporating gold leaf into the texture
of her work and weaving heavy surfaces on to pre-woven rolls
of fiber, like the one we see here in the present lot. This
incredible work also follows the large formats Amaral has
often experimented with, a scale that reflects a boldness that
enabled her to achieve ingenious visual forms of textiles with
consistent textures, into which she has even incorporated
horsehair and plastic. The sculptural proportions of this work
are achieved by the sheer volume and scale of it. The result
are cutting-edge elements that ultimately communicate the
“grace of [these] full-scale works, resulting in the synthesis of
a language which gave her tapestry a new ‘fine-arts’ quality”
(L. Smith Edward, ed., Olga de Amaral—The Mantle of
Memory, Somogy: Paris, p. 35).
Provenance
Exhibited
Olga de Amaral
Colombian | 1932At age 22 with a degree in architectural design, Olga de Amaral moved from Bogotá to the United States where she studied fiber art at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. She returned to Colombia in 1955, and in 1956 she and her husband, Jim Amaral, opened a workshop of hand-woven textiles. De Amaral's distinctive large-scale abstract woven pieces are often covered in gold and silver leaf, lending them a shimmering, almost sculptural quality in contrast to the feeling of a tapestry. Her richly textured pieces evoke the varied natural landscapes of Colombia as well as ancient pre-Columbian gold artifacts. The artist's architectural background is evident in the precise sculptural quality of her works, but de Amaral says her craft is driven by emotion and that she does not plan for particular patterns to emerge.
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