Mid 20th Century Ecuadorian Carpet ByOlga Fisch ( 11' x 13'4"-335 x 406 )
About the Item
- Creator:Olga Fisch (Maker)
- Dimensions:Width: 132 in (335.28 cm)Length: 160 in (406.4 cm)
- Materials and Techniques:Wool,Hand-Knotted
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1950
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:Seller: #218021stDibs: LU4926125785082
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.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Shipping from: New York, NY
- Return Policy
More From This Seller
View AllVintage 1960s Ecuadorean Mid-Century Modern North and South American Rugs
Wool
Vintage 1920s Indian North and South American Rugs
Wool
Vintage 1940s American Folk Art North and South American Rugs
Wool
Vintage 1950s American North and South American Rugs
Wool
Vintage 1910s Indian Agra Indian Rugs
Wool
Antique 1850s American North and South American Rugs
Wool
You May Also Like
Mid-20th Century Ecuadorean Art Deco North and South American Rugs
Wool
20th Century Ecuadorean Mid-Century Modern North and South American Rugs
Wool
Late 20th Century Mexican Folk Art North and South American Rugs
Wool
Mid-20th Century American American Classical North and South American Rugs
Wool, Yarn
Mid-20th Century American American Classical North and South American Rugs
Wool, Yarn
Mid-20th Century American Folk Art North and South American Rugs
Wool
