Behind the Numbers: Winter 2013

Off the Wall
Since the late 1960s, Hicks has produced large-scale works like Tahoe Wall for corporate offices and public spaces. These pieces range from rugs hung on the wall to mounted panels of embroidery, colorful corded fibers, or voluminous passementerie tassels; when installed, they humanize modernist interiors by transforming rigid walls into soft planes enriched with visual and tactile complexity. Her commissions have included textiles for Eero Saarinen’s CBS headquarters and TWA terminal, Kevin Roche’s Ford Foundation building, and the Hotel Camino Real in Mexico City by Ricardo Legorreta—even custom-embroidered tapestries for a fleet of Air France 747s. In the 1970s Hicks produced modular, wrapped-cord panels similar to Tahoe Wall for a Rothschild Bank lounge remodel in Paris, and for Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill’s Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Company (now Mortgage Guaran­­­tee Investment Corporation) build­­ing in Milwaukee, the Wilmington State Bank in Delaware, and AT&T’s New Jersey headquarters. Hicks’s large-scale works from this period are rarely on the market and eagerly sought by museums and collectors alike. The Silk Rainforest from the AT&T building, for example, is now in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Peter Loughrey, director of modern and contemporary fine art at Los Angeles Modern Auctions, says of Tahoe Wall’s stellar performance, “Nearly identical works are featured in books on fiber art and have been exhibited at major museums. This was a rare chance to acquire a truly iconic example.”