Sheila Hicks

Early life and education

Sheila Hicks was taught to sew by her mother and to embroider and knit by her grandmother, making her 'thread conscious' from a young age. Hicks attended Yale University School of Art and Architecture in Connecticut (1954-1959), where she gained a BFA in painting (1957) and MFA in painting (1959) and studied with Josef Albers, Rico Lebrun, Bernard Chaet, Jose de Riviera, Herbert Mather, Norman Ives, Gabor Peterdi, George Kubler, George Heard Hamilton, and Vincent Scully. Along with George Kubler, independently, Junius Bird of the American Museum of Natural History and Anni Albers were advisors for her thesis, "Pre-Incaic Textiles." Hicks was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study and paint in Chile (1957–58); she photographed archeological sites in Peru and Bolivia.

In 1959, she was awarded a grant by Henri Peyre, Sterling Professor at Yale University, to study in France. Upon completion, she moved to Mexico and, inspired by pre-Columbian textiles and indigenous culture, established her first weaving studio in Taxco el Viejo. While in Mexico, she worked on textile projects for Mathias Goeritz, Luis Barragán, Ricardo Legoretta and Knoll International. With her Rolleiflex, she photographed the experimental architecture of Felix Candela in preparation for a documentary film.

She relocated to Paris, France, in 1964, and founded Atelier des Grands Augustins, where she worked on large-scale, site-specific textile-based projects.

Career

In 2010 a retrospective exhibition of Hicks' 50-year career originated at the Addison Gallery in Andover, Mass. with additional venues at the ICA in Philadelphia, and at The Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina. This included both miniature works, which Hicks calls "minimes" and large scale sculpture. She also makes larger (sometimes monumental) works, wall hangings and sculptures. Her pieces are often vibrantly colored and materially diverse.

Hick's work on miniatures have included the use of transparent noodles, pieces of slate, razor clam shells, shirt collars, collected sample skeins of embroidery threads, rubber bands, shoelaces, and Carmelite-darned socks, while her temporary installations have incorporated thousands of hospital "girdles" - birth bands for newborns - baby shirts, blue nurses' blouses and khaki army shirts, as well as the wool sheets darned by Carmelite nuns.

Hicks's work is characterised by her direct examination of indigenous weaving practices in the countries of their origin. This has led her travel through five continents, visiting locations such as Mexico, France, Morocco, India, Chile, Sweden, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Japan and South Africa, developing relationships with designers, artisans, industrialists, architects, politicians and cultural leaders.

In 2013, the 18-foot-high Pillar of Inquiry/Supple Column was included in the Whitney Biennal.

Hicks' work can be found in private and public collections, including: Ford Foundation, NY, 1967; Georg Jensen Center for Advanced Design, NY; Air France Boeing 747 planes, 1969–74; TWA terminal at JFK Airport, NY, 1973; CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System), NY; Rochester Institute of Technology, NY; Banque Rothschild, Paris, France; Francis Bouygues, Paris, France; IBM, Paris, France, 1972; Kodak, Paris, France ; Fiat Tower, Paris, Franc; MGIC Investment Corporation, Milwaukee, WI; King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 1983; Kellogg’s, Michigan; Fuji City, Cultural Center, Japan, 1999; Institute of Advance Study, Princeton, NJ; Target Headquarters, Minneapolis, MN, 2003; SD26 Restaurant, NY, 2009; Ford Foundation (reconstructed), NY, 2013–14; Foundation Louis Vuitton, Boulogne, France, 2014–15

Hicks will be participating in the 2017 Venice Biennale, Viva Arte Viva, May 13 – November 16, 2017.

Awards and recognition