Early Life, Family and Training
Sheila Isham was born in New York City on December 19, 1927. Her early years were spent in Cedarhurst, where she grew up before attending the Garrison Forest School. This preparatory schooling provided the foundation for her later studies at Bryn Mawr College. It was during her time at Bryn Mawr that she met Heyward Isham, who was a student at Yale University at the time. The two eventually married.
Her formal training took her away from the United States to Europe. Between 1950 and 1954, Sheila Isham studied at the Akademie der Künste in West Berlin. This period in Berlin allowed her to develop her technical skills within the academic environment of the Academy of Arts. These years of study in West Berlin helped shape the hand of the printmaker and painter she would become.
Technique, Style and Artistic Themes
Her work moves between the precision of printmaking and the fluid application of acrylic on canvas. She often worked with abstracted calligraphy, a style shaped by her time in Hong Kong. These marks frequently merged with abstracted landscapes and mythic shapes. Her approach was driven by the places she lived and the spiritual beliefs she held. Experiences in Russia, India, East Asia, Haiti, and Hong Kong left her with a vocabulary of archetypical images that she carried through her career.
The themes in her paintings often centered on the relationship between species and the natural world. In her "Cosmic Myth" series, which includes the "Oasis Series" and "Dream Sequences," she explored personification and the coexistence of varied creatures. The "Oasis" works look at how different species live together, while the "Dream" works suggest a sense of respect for nature. She also produced a "Comic Myth" series, where the figures appear more playful and animate.
- Huan Dispersion Wind with Water (about 1973)
- Orange Desert Green (1978)
Exhibitions and Major Collections
The reach of her work extends through many institutional halls. In 2004, the State Russian Museum presented a 50-year retrospective of her output. Her pieces find permanent homes in the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Other collections holding her work include the National Gallery of Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. These spaces house the marks she left through her various printmaking and painting practices.
Her presence is also felt in the Yale University Art Gallery and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden maintains her work within its holdings. These institutions hold the physical traces of her long career, from the early years of her training to her later series. Her art remains part of the public record in these various galleries and museums.
