MIRIAM SACKS (SOUTH AFRICAN/BRITISH 1922-2004) §
COSMIC ENERGY I, 1966
£2,016
Auction: Modern Made Day 2 - Lots 124 to 456 - Friday 02 May at 10:30
Description
initialled in wool (lower right), signed and dated (to reverse), hand sewn wool
Dimensions
109.5cm x 105.5cm (43in x 41 ½in)
Provenance
Estate of the Artist.
Footnote
Miriam Sacks was a South African-born British textile artist and painter. She earned an MA in Social Anthropology from the University of Cape Town before moving to London in 1946 to join her husband. In 1951, she relocated to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where she began painting and established a children's art school.
A visit to New York proved pivotal in her artistic journey—after encountering The Lady and the Unicorn tapestries, she was inspired to explore tapestry as a medium. Developing her own unique, experimental technique, she created intricate "woven images" using needle and thread, much like a painter working with brushes and pigment. Her work drew on a diverse range of influences, from her African experiences and cultural heritage to broader social themes, blending figuration and abstraction.
In 1964, Sacks returned to London and quickly gained an international reputation after exhibiting at the British Embassy in Washington, DC. At Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge, her tapestries were displayed alongside works by leading British potters, including Han Coper and Lucie Rie, just as her work is displayed here, 50 years later.
Over the following decades, she exhibited widely at venues including the Royal Festival Hall (1971), the Victoria and Albert Museum (1971, 1973), the South African National Gallery (1972), and Leighton House (1977, 1981, 1985, 1988), among others. Esteemed figures such as Maxwell Fry and Herman Wouk championed her work, which is now held in collections across the UK, the US, South Africa, Israel, Zimbabwe, and Canada.
Her memory of Africa, its landscape and extraordinary light, has inspired most of her work, both figurative and abstract. Her subject matter has been informed by her love of nature, her studies in anthropology and music, and her understanding of how technology has impacted the world. Beyond her art, Sacks was a prolific essayist and an avid collector of materials related to her life's work, many of which are featured on her website: miriamsacks.com.