Sheila Hicks & Lenore Tawney
in ‘Women Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction’, MoMA, New York
20 April – 13 September 2025
Sheila Hicks, Bretagne, 2009 © Sheila Hicks
Lenore Tawney, Drawing in the Air X, 1997 © Lenore G. Tawney Foundation
Sheila Hicks and Lenore Tawney are included in the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa and The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s touring exhibition ‘Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction’, continuing until 13 September 2025.
The group exhibition features works by Sheila Hicks, Olga de Amaral, Lenore Tawney and Anni Albers alongside pieces by Andean artists from the first millennium BCE to the 16th century. The constructive nature of weavings, arising from the grid formed by the vertical and horizontal elements of the loom, prompted the formal investigation of geometric designs that emphasise the integral relationship between structure and design in the textiles. Each of the four modern artists featured, including Tawney, developed innovative approaches to an ancient medium through deep study of Andean techniques. Shown together, these ancient and modern weavings reposition the place of textiles in global art history.