Olga de Amaral: To Weave a Rock

The book traces Amaral’s career over five decades, features more than 40 key pieces of work, and examines the Olga de Amaral’s oeuvre through the lens of contemporary and fiber art.

Olga de Amaral is one of the world’s best-known artists in textile and one of the few South American women to be represented in the Arts and Crafts section at major international applied arts museums.

De Amaral’s origins are also displayed in her work: taken from the idyllic Columbian landscape and the urban architecture of Bogota, her palette of colours is woven into monumental installations made of wool, horsehair and nylon. Using appliques of plastic or gold leaf but also acrylic, the artist achieves new possibilities in design and in-tensity of colour within her textile creations.

Her close relation to nature is also found in the title of the book and the accompanying exhibition that will travel the United States: To Weave a Rock, reflecting Olga de Amaral’s ‘weaving’ of landscapes. Some fifty of her finest works from the 1960s to the present day are illustrated in both large-format and detail in the current publication and will be on display in the United States during the coming years - at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Cran-brook Art Museum; and the Museum of Arts and Design, New York.