Miriam Sacks was born into a Jewish family in South Africa in 1922 and studied for an MA in Social Anthropology at the University of Cape Town. In 1946 she left for the UK, and later went to live in Southern Rhodesia. Here she ran a children's art school from 1950-56, afterwards travelling extensively in the USA. From 1958-63 she developed her own individual, experimental technique to create tapestries or ‘woven images’, using needle and thread, in the manner of a painter using brushes and paints, and drawing upon a wide range of themes influenced by her time in Africa, her heritage and wider spiritual concerns, in a style moving between figuration and abstraction.
She exhibited in the Central African Exhibitions in London at Imperial Institute (1957) , and the Commonwealth Institute (1961), followed by her first solo tapestry show in Cape Town (1962). She returned to the UK in 1964, and two years later exhibited at the British Embassy, Washington DC, USA and had her first solo London show at William Ware Gallery. She exhibited widely at London venues including the Design Centre; Whitechapel Gallery; Camden Art Centre (1967), Ben Uri Gallery (1969) and Leighton House, as well as with the Weavers’ Workshop Edinburgh; Kettles Yard Cambridge (1970), and many other venues. She died in London, England in 2004. Her work is represented in the Ben Uri Collection.
