Olga de Amaral - by Stephanie Weissberg & Christina De Leon (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A beautifully illustrated exploration of the life and work of an extraordinary fiber artist

Colombian artist Olga de Amaral (b. 1932) is one of the most important figures in fiber art over the last century, her work distinguished by material exploration, technical innovation, and architectural scale. Working with materials such as linen, horsehair, and gold leaf, and techniques like plaiting, wrapping, knotting, and double-weave, Amaral has forged a singular visual language. This book traces Amaral's evolution from her early weavings of the 1950s to her monumental textiles of the 2000s, bringing together celebrated and rarely seen works, and offering new insights into her career.

Amaral's training as an architectural draftsperson and her studies at Cranbrook Academy of Art shaped her lifelong engagement with color, structure, and space. Early in her career, she developed custom textiles for Colombia's emerging modernist architectural community, establishing the workshop that became Telas Amaral. She married the artist Jim Amaral in 1957 and together they expanded the studio, producing handwoven textiles, rugs, and furnishings for decades. A lifelong student of weaving, Amaral also pushed beyond its conventions, devising innovative techniques in which she blurred the boundaries between painting, drawing, sculpture, and textile, redefining the possibilities of fiber art. This book is the first publication to place Telas Amaral's functional textiles into dialogue with Amaral's experimental woven forms, revealing the full breadth of her practice.

Curators Stephanie Weissberg and Christina L. De León offer an overview of the artist's career. A contribution by decorative arts and design historian Antonio Sánchez links Amaral's work to Colombian sociopolitical and cultural histories. Conservator Emilia Cortes discusses the artist's personal collection, shedding light on her deep engagement with global and local craft and textile traditions, while conservator Kira Eng-Wilmot unravels Amaral's innovative techniques through a series of new technical analyses.

Published in association with the Pulitzer Arts Foundation and Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Exhibition Schedule
Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St. Louis
September 10, 2026-January 31, 2027
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York
April 2-October 12, 2027

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