Artist Sheila Hicks: We're Crying for Softness

Video from Louisiana Channel

Artist Sheila Hicks: We're Crying for Softness

“Art is a big word.” We visited Sheila Hicks, one of the most fascinating artists of our time, who, in her 90s, continues to work and surprise herself every day.

”I don't remember when I got interested in art. I don't remember when it began. It wasn't a conscious decision. I'm still not sure what it means. I know what I like to do, and I am trying to figure out how to do it.”

”Sitting in the back of a car as a child, you're a hostage. You look out the window. What's going on out there sparks your imagination. You wonder if you could be a participant. If you climbed out of the car, you could become part of another existence. I'm still thinking the same way. For me, moving around, working, looking out the window causes me to imagine different existences simultaneously.”

In this personal interview, Sheila Hicks reflects upon her life, her accidental but formative meeting with Josef Albers at Yale University, and her discovery of the world of textiles.

“I am very alert to how people package themselves. What they choose to live with on their own bodies. So, while painting and drawing, I always had textiles. I was surrounded by them, anywhere I went. Textiles appealed to me, and I was trying to figure out how they were made. I was fascinated like a crossword puzzle. How is this? Is this a single thread? Or is it two networks of threads that interlace in different positions and become a weaving, a textile, or a tapestry? I have always been sensitive to textiles.”

“In the world we live in with so many hard things that we touch, we're crying for softness. We're all yearning for something that is warm, welcoming, and soft in the hard, hard world. What better than textiles and fiber? I've often repeated this: everybody knows that from the time you're born until you die, you're enveloped in textiles. So why not the best? And why not the ones you like the best and the ones you feel the best in?”

Sheila Hicks was born in Hastings, Nebraska, and received her BFA and MFA degrees from Yale University. She received a Fulbright scholarship in 1957-58 to paint and teach in Chile. While in South America, she developed her interest in working with fibres. After founding workshops in Mexico, Chile, and South Africa and working in Morocco and India, she now divides her time between her Paris studio and New York. ​

Hicks has exhibited internationally in both solo and group exhibitions. She was included in the 2017 Venice Biennale, the 2014 Whitney Biennial in New York, and the 2012 São Paulo Biennial in Brazil. Recent solo presentations include Lignes de Vie at the Centre Pompidou in Paris (2018), Free Threads 1954-2017 at the Museo Amparo, Mexico (2017), and Pêcher dans La Rivière at the Alison Jacques Gallery, London (2013). A major retrospective Sheila Hicks: 50 Years debuted at the Addison Gallery of American Art and travelled to the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia and the Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC. 

Hicks‘ work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, New York City; Museum of Fine Arts Boston; The Art Institute of Chicago; the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; Museo de Bellas Artes, Santiago; solo exhibitions at the Seoul Art Center, Korea; Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

Sheila Hicks was interviewed by Marc-Christoph Wagner at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris in November 2021 and in her studio in November 2025.

Camera: Mark Nickels (2021) and Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan (2025)

Edit: Roxanne Bagheshirin Lærkesen

Produced by: Marc-Christoph Wagner

Copyright: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2025

Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond and Ny Carlsbergfondet." from the video introduction

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