Sheila Hicks
in ‘In a Cloud, in a Wall, in a Chair’, Art Institute of Chicago
6 September 2019 – 12 January 2020
Sheila Hicks, Learning to Weave in Taxco, Mexico, c. 1960. Courtesy: © Sheila Hicks
Sheila Hicks is included in ‘In a Cloud, in a Wall, in a Chair: Six Modernists in Mexico at Midcentury’ at the Art Institute of Chicago, alongside Anni Albers, Ruth Asawa, Lola Álvarez Bravo, Clara Porset and Cynthia Sargent.
Inspired by both local traditions and modern methods, these women made art that reflected and contributed to Mexico’s rich artistic landscape at the height of the modern period. Their work – which included furniture design, jewellery, photography, photo-murals, prints, sculpture, and textiles – was rooted in modernism and grounded in abstraction. This constellation of like-minded practitioners shared an affinity for Mexico, a country all lived in or visited between the 1940s and the 1970s. In bringing their works together, this exhibition offers an entirely new lens on modernism in Mexico.