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 house is certainly welcoming.