Sheila Hicks

Textile is a universal language. In all of the cultures of the world, textile is a crucial and essential component. Therefore, if you’re beginning with thread, you’re halfway home. There’s a level of familiarity that immediately breaks down any prejudice.

–Sheila Hicks, 2014

In The Principal Wife, Sheila Hicks created a malleable sculpture comprising multiple segments of undyed linen hanks bound at intervals with brightly colored yarn. Languidly draped over a Lucite bar and plunging heavily to the ground, these individual components are intended to be rearranged and adjusted. The work’s title refers to the varied roles of women that Hicks observed while traveling in North Africa, inspiring her to explore the ways in which many parts become one, and yet can split and recombine into new—and still whole—units. 

–Kate Irvin, curator of costume and textiles

Inspired by her contact with the extended family connections she saw in polygamous marriages in North Africa, Sheila Hicks here explores how many parts can become one, split, and recombine into new units. Her bundled and wrapped yarns become metaphors for elemental life forces.

Hicks studied painting at Yale with Josef Albers, but discovered the possibilities of textile arts during a trip to South America in the 1950s. Her first fiber works were loom woven, but studying ancient Peruvian textiles directed her into off-loom techniques, which she used sculpturally to explore her ideas. The Principal Wife was shown in the seminal MOMA fiber art exhibition, Wall Hangings, in 1969.