Sheila Hicks: Fifty Years


1 October 2011 - 29 January 2012

Mint Museum of Craft + Design

 

 

Photo: Massimo Vignelli Associates

 

"Textiles had been relegated to a secondary role in our society, to a material that was either functional or decorative.  I wanted to give it another status and show what an artist can do with these incredible materials."

-Sheila Hicks in a 2004 interview from Archives of American Art

 

Sheila Hicks: 50 Years is the first museum retrospective devoted to this pioneering figure.  Sheila Hicks is an artist who builds with color and thinks with line.  From her earliest work of the late 1950s to the present, she crossed the boundaries of painting, sculpture, design, drawing, and woven form, and has become a critical force in redefining the domains of contemporary art-making.  While challenging the relation of fine arts to commercial arts and studio practice to site-specific commissions, Hicks has, above all, re-imagined the profound, vital relation of artist to artisan.

 

The exhibit displays the artist's conceptual, procedural, and material concerns via five distinct, though intimately related, fields of inquiry: bas-reliefs and sculptures; small weavings and drawings; site commissions for public spaces; industrial textiles; and process works make of recuperated textiles, clothing, and other found objects.

 

Born in Hastings, Nebraska, Ms. Hicks received her Bachelor's (1957) and Master's in Fine Arts (1959) degrees from Yale.  Her work is influenced by the Bauhaus tradition of her painting instructor, Josef Albers, and her exposure to and study of pre-Columbian textiles.  She currently resides in Paris, France and has worked on projects spanning from Japan to South Africa to the United States.

 

 

Early Education and Travel 1937-1960

 

Sheila Hicks. 

American,1934-

Zapallar, 1957-58

wool

9 1/4" x 4 3/4"

Private collection

Photograph by: Bastiaan van   den Berg

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

  

Early Career 1960-1974

 

                 

Sheila Hicks. American, 1934-

Badgara, 1969

cotton

Fabric created for Commonwealth Trust Ltd.

American Fabrics Issue 84, Fall 1969     

                                        

 

Sheila Hicks. American, 1934-

Study for Fugue, Rothschild Bank Headquarters, Paris, 1969

linen, cotton

15 3/4 x 23 5/8 inches

Private collection

Photograph by:

Bastiaan van den

Berg                                       

  Sheila Hicks. American, 1934- 

La Clef, 1988

rubber bands, metal key

9 1/2 x 6 inches

Private collection

Photograph by: Bastiaan van den Berg                      

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                  

1975-1985

 

1986-2006

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

2007-2010

  

   

 

Sheila Hicks. American, 1934-

Wrapped and Coiled Traveler, 2009

bamboo, cotton, wool, silk

8 7/8 x 5 1/4 inches

Private collection. Courtesy of Cristina Grajales Gallery

Photograph by: Bastiaan van den Berg

 

 

Selected Titles in The Mint Museum Library 

 

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Created by Kelley Grogan and Danielle Mathieson, Mint Museum Library volunteers