Sheila Hicks

(b Hastings, NE, 24 July 1934). American fibre artist. She studied at Yale University, New Haven, CT, under Josef Albers and Rico Lebrun (1954-9). She moved to Paris in 1963 but continued to travel and exhibit internationally. Hicks's first interest was in Pre-Columbian Peruvian textiles and traditional techniques of Mexican hand-weaving. These inspired her miniature woven pieces of the early 1960s. Towards the mid-1960s she studied a variety of industrial methods to enlarge the scale of her productions. Heavy, woven fabrics were embedded with cotton to add sculptural density, and works included linen and silk wall pieces, such as those held at the Ford Foundation, New York, or the floor piece L'Epouse pr?f?r?e occupe ses nuits (diam. 4.06 m, 1972; for illustration see FIBRE ART). Hicks's technical expertise and versatility allowed her to manipulate fabrics in 'free-fall' structures of chords, discs and tubes, in brilliant colour harmonies that present textile art as a provocative experience, situated between sculpture and performance.

See the Abbreviations for further details.

'Linen Lean-to', linen work by Sheila Hicks, 1967-1968, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Sheila Hicks is an American fiber artist (born in Hastings, Nebraska in 1934) who presents textile art as an experience situated between sculpture and performance.

From 1954 to 1959 she studied at Yale University, New Haven under Josef Albers and Rico Lebrun. Her first interest was in Pre-Columbian Peruvian textiles and traditional techniques of Mexican hand-weaving, which inspired her miniature woven pieces of the early 1960s. Towards the mid-1960s she studied a variety of industrial methods to enlarge the scale of her productions; heavy, woven fabrics were embedded with cotton to add sculptural density. Since 1963 she lives and works in Paris, New York and Tokyo .

Her works are in the permanent collections of museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Museum of Nebraska Art, the Museo de Bellas Artes, Chile, and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Nantes.

See also

• Fiber art
• Weaving

External links

• Sheila Hicks Homepage

This article about an artist from the United States is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)