Modernist Ecuadorian Rug by Olga Fisch from the "Caverna" Series
View Similar Items
Modernist Ecuadorian Rug by Olga Fisch from the "Caverna" Series
About the Item
- Creator:Olga Fisch (Weaver)
- Dimensions:Width: 70 in (177.8 cm)Length: 92 in (233.68 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1950
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use. Minor consistant discoloration,, have not cleaned,, see photos..
- Seller Location:Buffalo, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU106241865132
Olga Fisch
Despite her Hungarian roots, artist Olga Fisch is remembered as the “mother of Ecuadorian folk art” due to her love of Ecuador’s art and culture. Best known for her vibrant rug designs and tapestries, Fisch contributed greatly to promoting Ecuadorian folk art abroad and introducing the country’s traditions and heritage to the world.
Born in Budapest in 1901, Fisch became interested in art at an early age. In her youth, she collected Hungarian folk crafts and was keen on becoming a painter.
In the 1920s, Fisch studied realist painting at an art school in Düsseldorf, Germany. There, she met her first husband, the sculptor Jupp Rübsam, and the couple moved to Vienna, Austria, where she worked as a ceramics designer. Following their divorce, Fisch grew unsettled by the burgeoning anti-Semitism in pre-World War II Germany. After she married for a second time, Fisch and her husband traveled to Morocco, Eritrea, Italy and the United States before receiving asylum status in Ecuador in 1939.
Settling in Quito, Fisch became enamored with traditional Ecuadorian folk art and returned to her childhood hobby of collecting crafts — everything from pottery and hand-carved wood sculptures to colorful textiles. Fisch’s sizable collection prompted her to open a gallery, called Folklore, in 1942. However, what she considered beautiful art was regarded by others as crude.
“When I first started collecting the local Indian art and then opened this gallery, people were shocked,” she said in an interview with The Christian Science Monitor. “I remember someone asking, ‘How can you, as a cultured European woman, collect this trash?’” Nevertheless, Fisch’s collection soon garnered international attention and acclaim.
In the 1940s, Fisch began designing folk art-inspired rugs, hand-woven by indigenous Ecuadorian weavers. One rug caught the eye of acclaimed writer Lincoln Kirstein, then curator of New York’s Museum of Modern Art; he commissioned her to create a rug for the museum’s collection. Over the years, Fisch also made rugs for the United Nations Headquarters and the Metropolitan Opera.
Fisch returned to Hungary in 1987 to visit family members who had survived the Nazi regime. She later came back to Quito, where she died in 1990.
Today, Fisch’s legacy lives on through the Olga Fisch Folklore brand, store and museum, which still operates in Quito. Her works are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Textile Museum in Washington, DC.
On 1stDibs, discover a range of vintage Olga Fisch rugs and other art.
- Modernist Abstract Ecuadorian Tapestry / Wall Hanging Designed by Olga FischBy Olga FischLocated in Buffalo, NYStunning Modernist Abstract Ecuadorian Tapestry / wall hanging designed by Olga Fisch.... Of Hungarian origin, Olga Fisch (1901-1991) emigrated in...Category
Vintage 1960s Ecuadorean Mid-Century Modern Tapestries
MaterialsWool
- Unusual Art dECO / Modernist geometric abstract rug , carpetLocated in Buffalo, NYUnusual Art dECO / Modernist geometric abstract rug , carpet.. Stunning colors.. Great use of space, pallet..Category
Vintage 1940s Belgian Art Deco North and South American Rugs
MaterialsWool
- Stunning Constructivist / Modernist/ Art Deco Hook Rug , Wall Hanging FOLK ARTLocated in Buffalo, NYUnusual Constructivist / Modernist / Art Deco Hook Rug...Wall Hanging. Amazing use of color ,texture and space .Nice original condition,Category
Vintage 1920s American Art Deco North and South American Rugs
MaterialsWool
- Monumental Late 19th Century American Shaker Rag Rug (139" x 97")Located in Buffalo, NYMonumental Late 19th Century American Shaker Rag Rug (139" x 97"),, Unusual colors / pattern. minor separtion , sections, repairs,,Category
Antique 1890s American Shaker North and South American Rugs
MaterialsWool, Fabric
- Classic Modernist Side Chair, Series 7 by Arne Jacobsen, Fritz HansenBy Arne JacobsenLocated in Buffalo, NYMid-Century Modern Scandinavian chairs model 7 by Arne Jacobsen. Produced by Fritz Hansen / Knoll chromed steel legs. Classic 1955 design, original light grey painted finish.Category
20th Century Danish Scandinavian Modern Chairs
MaterialsChrome
- Pop Modernist Geometric Designed Rug Hanging by Verner PantonBy Verner PantonLocated in Buffalo, NYPop modernist geometric designed rug, wall hanging by Verner Panton, minor wear, staining, have not had professionally cleaned, Classic 1970s Panton design.Category
Vintage 1970s Danish Mid-Century Modern Russian and Scandinavian Rugs
MaterialsWool
- Vintage Olga Fisch Ecuadorian Rug. Size: 6' 10" x 10' 4"By Olga FischLocated in New York, NYStunning vintage Ecuadorian rug by Olga Fisch, origin: Ecuador, circa mid-20th century. Size: 6 ft 10 in x 10 ft 4 in (2.08 m x 3.15 m) Olga Fisch was an inspired artist of the mid-...Category
Mid-20th Century Ecuadorean Art Deco North and South American Rugs
MaterialsWool
- Vintage Folk Art Ecuadorian Tapestry with Olga Fisch StyleBy Olga FischLocated in Dallas, TX78310 Vintage Folk Art Ecuadorian tapestry with olga Fisch style, 01'11 x 02'09Category
Late 20th Century Mexican Folk Art North and South American Rugs
MaterialsWool
- Mid Century Ecuadorian Carpet By Olga Fisch ( 12' 4'' x 17' 3'' - 376 x 526 cm )Located in New York, NYEcuadorian Carpet Designed by Olga Fisch Quito, Ecuador Middle 20th century, c. 1960 Symmetrically knotted wool pile on a wool foundation. The “Nazca Lines” are ancient Peruvian, but...Category
Vintage 1960s Ecuadorean Mid-Century Modern North and South American Rugs
MaterialsWool
- Mid 20th Century Ecuadorian Carpet ByOlga Fisch ( 11' x 13'4"-335 x 406 )By Olga FischLocated in New York, NYEcuadorian carpet designed by Olga Fisch 13'4" x 11'0" Of Hungarian origin, Olga Fisch (1901-1991) emigrated in 1933, first to Morocco and in 1939 to Ecuador, ahead of the political instability wracking Europe. Already an artist and collector of folk art, Fisch quickly took to the local arts and crafts available in the Quito markets. Folk and Paleolithic cave art and established a workshop creating knotted pile carpets to her individualistic and unique designs. The firm continues today, as does the museum of (primarily) Ecuadorian folk art. Only domestic sheep wool is employed and the rugs are firmly symmetrically (Turkish) knotted on a cotton foundation at a density of 60,000 knots per square meter or about 40 knots per square inch. is a rare oval creation with the “Cabalito” pattern inspired by the folk embroidery on the “danzantes’ participants in the Corpus Christi processions from Cotopaxi, Ecuador. A number of these costumes are in the Olga Fisch Folk Art Museum in Quito. The pattern densely fills the ivory field with mobile figures, horses and vegetal motives. It is reminiscent of certain Greek Island women’s costume embroideries. Often the “Cabalito” pattern occupies an oval or lobed section on an otherwise plain rectangular carpet, but here is the pattern takes up almost all of the oval, with its energetic filigree of figures, fauna and flora. Olga Fisch carpets are as 1950s modern as they get and our examples cry out for the right Danish or Swedish modern furniture as their perfect accompaniments. Some Italian Murano glass table objects won’t hurt either. A Neutra or Schindler house in the Los Angeles hills is definitely the perfect context, but any midcentury ranch...Category
Vintage 1950s Ecuadorean North and South American Rugs
MaterialsWool
$13,600 Sale Price20% Off - Olga Fisch Carpet "Caceria 'The Hunt'" Hungary/Ecuador, circa 1950Located in Evanston, ILA "Caceria" designed by the Hungarian Immigre Olga Fisch and hand woven circa 1950 in her Ecuador studio by local artisans. These colorful rugs were an integral part of the 1950s loo...Category
Mid-20th Century Ecuadorean Folk Art North and South American Rugs
MaterialsWool
- Mid Century Ecuadorian Carpet By Olga Fisch ( 5'2" x 6'9" - 157 x 205 )Located in New York, NYMid Century Ecuadorian Carpet By Olga Fisch ( 5'2" x 6'9" - 157 x 205 )Category
Vintage 1950s Ecuadorean Mid-Century Modern Moroccan and North African Rugs
MaterialsWool