Sheila Hicks

Revolution in the Making: Abstract Sculpture by Women, 1947 – 2016


Curated by Paul Schimmel and Jenni Sorkin

March 13 - September 4, 2016

Hauser Wirth & Schimmel, Los Angeles, USA

www.hauserwirth.com

Sheila HicksBanisteriopsis, 1965 – 1966 and Banisteriopsis II, 1965 – 1966 / 2010, The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Liliane and David M. Stewart Collection (Banisteriopsis II) / The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston

Los Angeles… Beginning 13 March 2016, Hauser Wirth & Schimmel is pleased to present Revolution in the Making: Abstract Sculpture by Women, 1947 – 2016, the inaugural exhibition at its new complex in the heart of the downtown Los Angeles Arts District. Through nearly 100 works made by 34 artists over the past seventy years, this ambitious undertaking traces ways in which women have changed the course of art by deftly transforming the language of sculpture since the postwar period. Works on view reveal their makers inventing radically new forms and processes that privilege solo studio practice, tactility, and the idiosyncrasies of the artist’s own hand. Revolution in the Making explores multiple strains of artistic approaches, characterized by abstraction and repetition, that reject the precedent of a monolithic masterwork on a pedestal, employing such tactics as stacking, hanging, and intertwining, to create an intimate reciprocity between artist and viewer. The exhibition examines how elements that are central to art today – including engagement with found, experimental, and recycled materials, as well as an embrace of contingency, imperfection, and unstructured play – were propelled by the work of women who, in seeking new means to express their own voices, dramatically expanded the definition of sculpture. Revolution in the Making includes many works on loan from nearly 60 major American museums, artists’ estates, and private collections, as well as new sculptures commissioned for the exhibition.