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Écailles

Sheila Hicks American
1976
Not on view
Born in Nebraska, Hicks moved to Paris in 1964 after several years living and traveling throughout Mexico and South America. The artist has often cited the art of Latin America, especially the complex work in fiber left behind by numerous indigenous peoples, as a precedent for her work. The copious fringe cascading from this weaving echoes the loose threads used to tether textile masks to bundled mummies in southern Peru. The composition’s most unexpected element is the five razor clamshells inserted, like haunting fingers, into the matrix of silk and wool. Various species of this saltwater mollusk, also known as a jackknife or bamboo clam, can be found today on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, a potential metaphor for Hicks’s own peripatetic lifestyle.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Écailles
  • Artist: Sheila Hicks (American, born Hastings, Nebraska, 1934)
  • Date: 1976
  • Medium: Silk, wool, razor clam shells
  • Dimensions: 26 1/2 × 8 1/4 in. (67.3 × 21 cm)
  • Classification: Textiles-Tapestries
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Melvin L. Bedrick Gift, 1989
  • Object Number: 1989.29
  • Rights and Reproduction: © Atelier Sheila Hicks
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

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Palm Tree, Sheila Hicks American, Wool, cotton, rayon, silk, linen
Palm Tree
Sheila Hicks
Atelier Philippe Hecquet Aubusson
1984–85
Bonsai Tapestry, Sheila Hicks American, Cotton, rayon
Bonsai Tapestry
Sheila Hicks
ca. 1986
Linen Lean-To, Sheila Hicks American, Linen
Linen Lean-To
Sheila Hicks
designed 1967–68; executed 1985
Untitled, Sheila Hicks American, 2 ply linen
Untitled
Sheila Hicks
1986
The Bride, Lenore Tawney American, Linen, feathers, wood
The Bride
Lenore Tawney
1962

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