Hesse, Eva
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==Early life== | ==Early life== | ||
| − | Hesse was born into a family of [[Judaism|observant Jews]] in [[Hamburg]], [[Germany]].<ref>SFMOMA exhibit notes, 2002 for Hamburg; Danto 2006, p.32 for family being observant Jews.</ref> When Hesse was two years old, her parents, hoping to flee from Nazi Germany, sent Eva and her older sister to [[ | + | Hesse was born into a family of [[Judaism|observant Jews]] in [[Hamburg]], [[Germany]].<ref>SFMOMA exhibit notes, 2002 for Hamburg; Danto 2006, p.32 for family being observant Jews.</ref> When Hesse was two years old, her parents, hoping to flee from [[Nazism|Nazi]] [[Germany]], sent Eva and her older sister to the [[Netherlands]] on a [[train]]. She and her sister were separated from their parents for a few months before they were reunited. After living in [[England]] for a short while, the family emigrated to [[New York City]] in 1939 <ref>Lippard 1992, p. 6 and in the Chronology: THE ARTIST'S LIFE, p. 218.</ref> where they settled in [[Manhattan]]'s [[Washington Heights]] neighborhood. <ref name=Danto-32>Danto 2006, p.32.</ref> |
| − | + | Her father was a criminal [[lawyer]] and the family was well to do. When they settled in New York they had to take in a boarder to pay the bills, and her father worked as an insurance broker. Eva's mother became more and more [[Depression (psychology)|depressed]] by their reduced circumstances and unwanted exile. She killed herself by jumping out of a window. Eva was ten years old when this happened. Severely traumatized she went into therapy, and stayed in [[psychoanalysis]] for the rest of her life.<ref>[http://www.jeanettewinterson.com/pages/content/index.asp?PageID=114 Eva Hesse] ''Jeanettewinterson.com''. Retrieved August 18, 2007.</ref> | |
| − | + | ||
| + | Hesse's creative talent had been evident since childhood. At 16 she graduated from the New York School of Industrial Arts. In the fall of 1952 she began studies at the [[Pratt Institute of Design]], but she dropped out in December 1953. She then studied figure drawing at the [[Art Student's League]] while she worked as a layout artist for ''Seventeen'' magazine. In 1957 she graduated from [[Cooper Union]] in New York and then studied at [[Yale University]] School of Art and Architecture with the assistance of a Norfolk Fellowship, receiving her B.F.A. in 1959. | ||
==Career== | ==Career== | ||
| − | In 1961 Hesse was included in group exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum and the John Heller Gallery in [[New York|New York City]]. That same year she met and married fellow sculptor Tom Doyle. In August 1962 the couple participated in an [[Allan Kaprow]] [[Happening]] at the [[Art Students League]] in [[Woodstock, New York]]. There Hesse made her first three dimensional piece: a costume made of chicken wire and soft jersey.<ref>Lippard 1992, p. 21, 218.</ref> In 1963 Eva Hesse had a one-person show of works on paper at the Allen Stone Gallery on New York's [[Upper East Side]].<ref>Lippard 1992, p. 219</ref> | + | In 1961 Hesse was included in group exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum and the John Heller Gallery in [[New York|New York City]]. That same year she met and married fellow sculptor [[Tom Doyle]]. In August 1962 the couple participated in an [[Allan Kaprow]] [[Happening]] at the [[Art Students League]] in [[Woodstock]], [[New York]]. There Hesse made her first three dimensional piece: a costume made of [[chicken wire]] and soft [[jersey]].<ref>Lippard 1992, p. 21, 218.</ref> In 1963 Eva Hesse had a one-person show of works on paper at the Allen Stone Gallery on New York's [[Upper East Side]].<ref>Lippard 1992, p. 219</ref> |
| − | From 1964-1965 the couple lived and worked under the patronage of | + | From 1964-1965 the couple lived and worked under the patronage of [[textile]] manufacturer and art collector, [[F. Arnhard Scheidt]], in an abandoned textile mill in the [[Ruhr Area|Ruhr]] region of [[Germany]]. It was there that Hesse began sculpting with materials left behind in the abandoned factory: first relief sculptures made of cloth-covered cord, electrical wire, and [[masonite]], then [[papier-mâché]], tubing, dyed nets and dangling string. |
| − | Returning to New York City in 1965 she began working in the materials that would become characteristic of her work: [[latex]], [[fiberglass]], and [[plastic]]s. <ref name=Danto-33>Danto, 2006, p.33.</ref> | + | Returning to New York City in 1965 she began working in the materials that would become characteristic of her work: [[latex]], [[fiberglass]], and [[plastic]]s. <ref name=Danto-33>Danto, 2006, p.33.</ref> She and her husband separated that same year. |
| − | Hesse became associated with the mid-1960s "[[anti-form]]" trend in sculpture, participating in New York exhibits such as "Eccentric Abstraction" and "Abstract Inflationism and Stuffed Expressionism" (both in 1966).<ref name=Danto-32/> In September 1968 Eva Hesse began teaching at the [[School of Visual Arts]]. <ref>Lippard 1992, p.220</ref> | + | Hesse became associated with the mid-1960s "[[anti-form]]" trend in sculpture, participating in New York exhibits such as "Eccentric Abstraction" and "Abstract Inflationism and Stuffed Expressionism" (both in 1966).<ref name=Danto-32/> In September 1968 Eva Hesse began teaching at the [[School of Visual Arts]].<ref>Lippard 1992, p.220</ref> Her only one-person show of sculpture in her lifetime was "Chain Polymers" at the Fischbach Gallery on W. 57th Street in New York in November 1968;<ref name=Danto-30>Danto, 2006, p.30.</ref> Her large piece ''Expanded Expansion'' was shown at the [[Whitney Museum]] in the 1969 exhibit ''Anti-Illusion: Process/Materials''.<ref name=Danto-30/> |
==End of life== | ==End of life== | ||
| − | In 1969, at the age of 34, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor. | + | In 1969, at the age of 34, she was diagnosed with a [[brain]] [[tumor]]. Her death in 1970 ended a career spanning only ten years. |
| − | Many posthumous exhibitions of Hesse's work have been held in both the United States and [[Europe]], including ones at the [[Guggenheim Museum]] (1972,<ref>Lippard 1992, p. 5, 128-129, 138, 180, 182.</ref> the [[San Francisco Museum of Modern Art]] (2002),<ref name=SFMOMA/> and the [[Jewish Museum (New York)|Jewish Museum of New York]] (2006). <ref name=Danto-30/> | + | Many posthumous exhibitions of Hesse's work have been held in both the [[United States]] and [[Europe]], including ones at the [[Guggenheim Museum]] (1972,<ref>Lippard 1992, p. 5, 128-129, 138, 180, 182.</ref> the [[San Francisco Museum of Modern Art]] (2002),<ref name=SFMOMA/> and the [[Jewish Museum (New York)|Jewish Museum of New York]] (2006).<ref name=Danto-30/> |
| − | Except for fiberglass, most of her favored materials age badly, so much of her work presents conservators with an enormous challenge. [[Arthur Danto]], writing of the Jewish Museum's 2006 retrospective, refers to | + | Except for fiberglass, most of her favored materials age badly, so much of her work presents conservators with an enormous challenge. [[Arthur Danto]], writing of the Jewish Museum's 2006 retrospective, refers to ''the discolorations, the slackness in the membrane-like latex, the palpable aging of the material… Yet somehow the work does not feel tragic. Instead it is full of life, of [[eros]], even of [[comedy]]… Each piece in the show vibrates with originality and mischief.''<ref>Danto, 2006, p.30–31.</ref> |
==Legacy== | ==Legacy== | ||
| − | Hesse's art is often viewed in | + | Hesse's art is often viewed in the context of her painful struggles in life that include escaping the [[Nazism|Nazis]], her parents' [[divorce]], the [[suicide]] of her mother when she was ten, her failed [[marriage]] and finally her illness. Her work reflects her experience of being a woman competing artistically in the male dominated world of Abstract art. She once commented, ''The best way to beat discrimination in art is by art.'' She also said, ''Excellence has no sex'', (From ''American Visions'' by Robert Hughes). |
Leslie Dick says in "Eva Hesse: Random Notes," | Leslie Dick says in "Eva Hesse: Random Notes," | ||
Revision as of 20:28, 18 August 2007
- For German author, publisher, see Eva Hesse (author) (de) (born 1925)
Eva Hesse (January 11, 1936 - May 29, 1970), was a German-born American sculptor, known for her pioneering work in materials such as latex, fiberglass, and plastics.
An key figure of early Postminimalism in the United States and one of the most influential artists of the postwar era, Eva Hesse created paintings, sculptures, and drawings that are striking in their poetic beauty and individuality. Building on the influences of Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Conceptualism, and Minimalism with her own distinctiveness, Hesse challenged disciplinary boundaries of both form and function in the field of modern art.
Her work has come to be affiliated primarily with process art, a term originating in the 1960s that implies an emphasis on the physical properties of materials and the manner of applying them. However, more important than the external content of her work, is the inner turbulence it expresses concerning the life challenges she endured from escaping Nazi Germany to suffering an early death from a brain tumor.
Early life
Hesse was born into a family of observant Jews in Hamburg, Germany.[1] When Hesse was two years old, her parents, hoping to flee from Nazi Germany, sent Eva and her older sister to the Netherlands on a train. She and her sister were separated from their parents for a few months before they were reunited. After living in England for a short while, the family emigrated to New York City in 1939 [2] where they settled in Manhattan's Washington Heights neighborhood. [3]
Her father was a criminal lawyer and the family was well to do. When they settled in New York they had to take in a boarder to pay the bills, and her father worked as an insurance broker. Eva's mother became more and more depressed by their reduced circumstances and unwanted exile. She killed herself by jumping out of a window. Eva was ten years old when this happened. Severely traumatized she went into therapy, and stayed in psychoanalysis for the rest of her life.[4]
Hesse's creative talent had been evident since childhood. At 16 she graduated from the New York School of Industrial Arts. In the fall of 1952 she began studies at the Pratt Institute of Design, but she dropped out in December 1953. She then studied figure drawing at the Art Student's League while she worked as a layout artist for Seventeen magazine. In 1957 she graduated from Cooper Union in New York and then studied at Yale University School of Art and Architecture with the assistance of a Norfolk Fellowship, receiving her B.F.A. in 1959.
Career
In 1961 Hesse was included in group exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum and the John Heller Gallery in New York City. That same year she met and married fellow sculptor Tom Doyle. In August 1962 the couple participated in an Allan Kaprow Happening at the Art Students League in Woodstock, New York. There Hesse made her first three dimensional piece: a costume made of chicken wire and soft jersey.[5] In 1963 Eva Hesse had a one-person show of works on paper at the Allen Stone Gallery on New York's Upper East Side.[6]
From 1964-1965 the couple lived and worked under the patronage of textile manufacturer and art collector, F. Arnhard Scheidt, in an abandoned textile mill in the Ruhr region of Germany. It was there that Hesse began sculpting with materials left behind in the abandoned factory: first relief sculptures made of cloth-covered cord, electrical wire, and masonite, then papier-mâché, tubing, dyed nets and dangling string.
Returning to New York City in 1965 she began working in the materials that would become characteristic of her work: latex, fiberglass, and plastics. [7] She and her husband separated that same year.
Hesse became associated with the mid-1960s "anti-form" trend in sculpture, participating in New York exhibits such as "Eccentric Abstraction" and "Abstract Inflationism and Stuffed Expressionism" (both in 1966).[3] In September 1968 Eva Hesse began teaching at the School of Visual Arts.[8] Her only one-person show of sculpture in her lifetime was "Chain Polymers" at the Fischbach Gallery on W. 57th Street in New York in November 1968;[9] Her large piece Expanded Expansion was shown at the Whitney Museum in the 1969 exhibit Anti-Illusion: Process/Materials.[9]
End of life
In 1969, at the age of 34, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Her death in 1970 ended a career spanning only ten years.
Many posthumous exhibitions of Hesse's work have been held in both the United States and Europe, including ones at the Guggenheim Museum (1972,[10] the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2002),[11] and the Jewish Museum of New York (2006).[9]
Except for fiberglass, most of her favored materials age badly, so much of her work presents conservators with an enormous challenge. Arthur Danto, writing of the Jewish Museum's 2006 retrospective, refers to the discolorations, the slackness in the membrane-like latex, the palpable aging of the material… Yet somehow the work does not feel tragic. Instead it is full of life, of eros, even of comedy… Each piece in the show vibrates with originality and mischief.[12]
Legacy
Hesse's art is often viewed in the context of her painful struggles in life that include escaping the Nazis, her parents' divorce, the suicide of her mother when she was ten, her failed marriage and finally her illness. Her work reflects her experience of being a woman competing artistically in the male dominated world of Abstract art. She once commented, The best way to beat discrimination in art is by art. She also said, Excellence has no sex, (From American Visions by Robert Hughes).
Leslie Dick says in "Eva Hesse: Random Notes,"
I think Eva Hesse’s sculpture resonates with these experiences, the experience of being a woman artist, of being persecuted, of being abandoned by her mother, the experience of illness, but I believe she was very careful to make sure that her work did not refer to these experiences directly. Her meanings are always tangential, oblique, and associative, as if meaning itself is as tenuous, as provisional, and as handmade as her sculptures. It would be wrong to make out that semi-spheres with dangling, pointless lines coming out of them do not invoke an absent or lost mother. But to insist that’s all they’re about would be equally obstructive. Eva Hesse’s work opens up possibilities, it doesn’t shut things down. Wrapping invokes bandaging, an act of reparation, but it’s also like a shroud, it’s what you do with a corpse. To choose one reading over another would be wrong headed.
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Eva Hesse. Da Capo Press, Inc. Lucy R. Lippard. illus. Trade Paper. (1992)
- Eva Hesse Sculpture. Timken Publishers, Inc. Bill Barrette. illus. Trade Paper. (1992)
- Eva Hesse Paintings, 1960-1964. Robert Miller Gallery. Max Kozloff. Edited by John Cheim and Nathan Kernan. illus. Trade Cloth. (1992)
- Four Artists: Robert Ryman, Eva Hesse, Bruce Nauman, Susan Rothenberg. Michael Blackwood Productions, Inc. Color VHS 45 min.
- Busch, Julia M., A decade of sculpture: the 1960s (The Art Alliance Press: Philadelphia; Associated University Presses: London, 1974) ISBN 0-87982-007-1
Notes
- ↑ SFMOMA exhibit notes, 2002 for Hamburg; Danto 2006, p.32 for family being observant Jews.
- ↑ Lippard 1992, p. 6 and in the Chronology: THE ARTIST'S LIFE, p. 218.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Danto 2006, p.32.
- ↑ Eva Hesse Jeanettewinterson.com. Retrieved August 18, 2007.
- ↑ Lippard 1992, p. 21, 218.
- ↑ Lippard 1992, p. 219
- ↑ Danto, 2006, p.33.
- ↑ Lippard 1992, p.220
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Danto, 2006, p.30.
- ↑ Lippard 1992, p. 5, 128-129, 138, 180, 182.
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedSFMOMA - ↑ Danto, 2006, p.30–31.
References
- Danto, Arthur C., "All About Eva," The Nation, July 17/24, 2006, p. 30–34. Posted online June 28, 2006.
- Hopkins, David, After Modern Art: 1945-2000, Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN 0-19-284234-X
- Lippard, Lucy R. 1976. Eva Hesse. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 0814749712
- Hesse, Eva, Griselda Pollock, and Vanessa Corby. 2006. Encountering Eva Hesse. Munich: Prestel. ISBN 3791333097
- Sussman, Elisabeth. 2002. Eva Hesse. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300091680
- SFMOMA | Exhibitions | Exhibition Overview | Eva Hesse (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art February 2, 2002 — May 19, 2002 exhibition). Accessed online 19 September 2006.
External links
- The Estate of Eva Hesse Evahesse.com. Retrieved August 18, 2007.
- Dick, Leslie, X-TRA, 2002; "Eva Hesse: Random Notes", X-TRA, Retrieved July 24, 2007.
- "postminimalism.com" Retrieved July 27, 2007.
- Eva Hesse Online Artcyclopedia.com. Retrieved August 18, 2007.
- Eva Hesse: Sculpture Jewishmuseum.org. Retrieved August 18, 2007.
- Eva Hesse Jeanettewinterson.com. Retrieved August 18, 2007.
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