Exploring the interplays of texture and color, Olga de Amaral’s Untitled, circa 1970s, is an exceptional example of the artist’s signature weaving practice. Born in Bogotá in 1932, de Amaral is deeply influenced by her Colombian culture and identity, using unconventional materials such as wool and horsehair to illustrate depth and space in a non-figurative way. Educated at Cranbrook Academy of the Arts in Michigan, de Amaral studied applied art and textiles, blurring the lines between art and craft with her groundbreaking practice. Representing Colombia in the Venice Biennale in 1986, de Amaral will return to Venice, participating in the 2024 Biennale.
Staging a solo exhibition of her Woven Walls, the series to which Untitled belongs, at the Museum of Arts and Design, New York in 1970, de Amaral received recognition early on in her career and continues to do so today. In 2019, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women’s Caucus for Art in New York, making her contributions to the art of textiles as evident today as it was in the 1970s. Today, her works are in the prominent public collections of the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the de Young Museum, San Francisco. Examples of her Woven Walls can be found at the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
“As I build these surfaces, I create spaces of meditation, contemplation and reflection... Tapestry, fibers, strands, units, cords, are all 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
One of her Muros Tejidos, or Woven Walls, the present work wraps braided spools of purple thread into a three-dimensional tapestry. Using rods to support the vertical weaves, the work becomes sculptural, challenging the notion of traditional weaving. Against the wall, Untitled becomes almost architectural, giving the work a sense of depth and structure. Carefully manipulating each thread within the composition, de Amaral creates complex, heavily textured plaits and patterns, allowing the hand of the artist to shine through the tapestry. While creating the Woven Walls, the artist noted, “as I build these surfaces, I create spaces of mediation, contemplation and reflection... Tapestry, fibers, 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.”
