Photograph by Cristobal Zanartu, courtesy of the artist and Demisch Danant
Of all the artists included in Objects: USA, with the possible exception of Dale Chihuly, Sheila Hicks is easily the most prominent to this day. This is perhaps a little ironic, for she has not actually lived in America since 1959, when she graduated from Yale University. There she had come into contact with Anni Albers while studying with Albers’s husband, Josef. While the two did not form a strong connection—Hicks was primarily interested in painting at the time—she would carry on the great German weaver’s innovative approach to structure. She also followed in Albers’s footsteps by developing a deep involvement in Latin American craft. Upon graduation, Hicks lived for five years in Mexico. There she began to define her vocabulary, taking inspiration from deceptively simple backstrap loom weavings, and forging creative alliances with the local avantgarde.
In 1964 she moved to Paris, where she has lived since. Hicks has developed many discrete bodies of work, ranging in size from small studies (which she calls minimes) to large-scale installations. Her imagery often draws on specifically female histories and mythologies, and everyday techniques such as braiding and knotting, which she elevates to heroic scale. The work included in the Objects: USA 2020 catalogue is part of a long-running series, The Principal Wife. The works in this series were inspired by a trip to North Africa, during which Hicks was struck by the various roles of women within polygamous marriages. As craft historian Elissa Auther notes, “The branchlike configuration of the object is a response, in part, to her understanding of these relations.”¹
¹ Elissa Auther, “Classification and Its Consequences: The Case of ‘Fiber Art,’” American Art 16, no 3 (Autumn 2002): 2.
Palghat Tapestry in cotton. Designed and made by Sheila Hicks, USA, 1966.
36” L x 68.5” H
91.4cm L x 174cm H
FA149
Courtesy of Demisch Danant