Fully stretched

Born in Hastings, Nebraska, in 1934 and enrolled at Yale, in 1954, young Sheila acquired a multi-layered university education pegged on fine and applied arts, before embarking on weaving. During those early Ivy League years, two key figures triggered her passion for polychromatic expression with a multicultural edge: on the one hand, prominent Bauhaus colour theorist, Josef Albers, at the helm of the Design Department; on the other, her thesis director, George Kubler, a world-renowned historian specialised in Latin American art, who fostered her interest in pre-Columbian textiles.

In 1957, Hicks was awarded a Fullbright scholarship, which took her to Chile and further afield; a keen student, she chanced upon various eminent mentors, including the Chilean Nobel Prize-winning poet-diplomat Pablo Neruda, and two Venezuelans: op and kinetic pioneer Jesús Rafael Soto and modernist architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva.

Photography also played a vital role in shaping the artist's groundbreaking approach to a time-honoured craft. The Santiago-born photographer, Sergio Larrain, a member of the iconic Magnum photojournalism agency, invited her to travel with him, introducing her to communities of weavers, while showing her the ropes of his trade.

Sheila Hicks has turned visual note-taking into an ongoing aspect of her back-and-forth creative process, referring to sketchbooks as well as to photographs taken in the course of her travels, when exploring innovative avenues. Her exuberantly original XXL works are the fruit of lifelong poetic experiments recorded for future reference via a series of 'mini looms' known as "Minimes", which she describes as her "travelling companions".

Consisting of portable wooden frames measuring approximately 30cm x 20cm, these artistic testing grounds are equipped with equally rudimentary nails through which she threads weft and warp, sometimes incorporating personal treasures gleaned on the road - rose thorns or twigs, for instance.

Mexico, Japan, and... India left a strong impression: "You cannot not be affected by the colour in India," she muses in a video. "You cannot NOT be affected by India." "Spinning off" in "directions" sparked by past experiences is one of her favourite tricks; alternating between intimate travelogue-like compositions and monumental "soft-sculpture" or stainless-steel fibre commissions, designed to embellish impersonal office or industrial environments is another.

Promoted by Terence Conran, Sheila Hicks' furnishing fabrics were a huge hit in the "Swinging London" of the 1960s, by which time the designer had already picked Paris as her European base.

When last in town, I stayed at La Louisiane, the Left Bank's equivalent of New York's Chelsea Hotel, famously frequented by leading lights of Existentialism, legendary jazzmen and Juliette Gréco, among other bohemian glitterati. Sheila Hicks' studio is a cobblestone's throw away, in the Cour de Rohan, a leafy enclave that epitomises Parisian art de vivre.

I took the liberty of leaving a message on her 18.7 k "hastingshicks" Instagram account, but guess that she must be roaming the planet in search of fresh twists and vibes... The fabric of her dreams.