1994

Toscane

American, born 1934

This linen bas-relief exemplifies Shelia Hicks’ innovative use of linen and her interest in juxtapositions and fusions of color and surface structure. Hicks’ exploration of bas-relief links back to her graduate studies with Josef and Anni Albers at Yale and her 1957 thesis study of “Andean Textile Art.” Her thesis displayed plaited and wrapped wool studies based on Pre-Columbian three-dimensional ceremonial headgear and small, stuffed bas-relief figures. Hicks witnessed traditional Central and Southern American plaited and wrapped wool techniques, among other techniques and weaving structures, when she was exposed to indigenous weavers while traveling to Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Mexico. Toscane demonstrates her mastery of the color and luminosity of dyed linen fibers, reflecting light and shifting value within a structure of alternating facets.