EVA HESSE: WHERE CAN SHE TAKE US?
Words: Emily Nam [New York City]
As I progressed through the Modern art collection at the Centre Pompidou on a recent visit to Paris — I found myself standing/moving/oscillating around a druid-circled grouping of translucent leg and feet-like, alien-like forms by the late American sculptor Eva Hesse [No title, 1970, Resin and fiberglass, polyethylene, aluminum wires]. It has been rare for me to view Hesse’s works in person and I can only recall, being with Repetition Nineteen III (1968) at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
Eva Hesse, Sans titre, 1970 Image: Emily Nam (2024, Centre Pompidou)
Eva Hesse [1936-1970] is known for her pioneering work in unconventional materials such as latex, fiberglass, and plastic and was a leader of the post-minimalist art movement. Her works are playful, humorous, commanding, and intimate. This work [No title,1970] is one of the last and was made by assistants, while Hesse was in hospital. Hesse was diagnosed with a brain tumor and after three failed operations, passed away on May 29, 1970 at 34 years of age in New York City.
I paused, watched as the light passed through the fragile and murky structures that stretch into the sky. At that moment, I was unaware I would be embarking on an Eva Hesse immersion; I am currently reading her personal diaries ‘Eva Hesse: Diaries, by Eva Hesse and Tamara Bloomberg’ and a grouping of her iconic works is now on view, in an out-of-the-ordinary exhibition at Hauser & Wirth, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the galleries representation of the Eva Hesse estate.
Eva Hesse was born on January 11, 1936 in Hamburg, Germany to Orthodox Jewish parents. In 1938, at 2 years old, Hesse and her older sister, Helen, were sent on one of the last Kindertransports to leave Nazi Germany. In 1939, Eva’s parents escaped Germany and reunited with their daughters in England. The only remaining of her extended family, together they boarded a ship to New York City and settled in Washington Heights. Subsequently, her parents divorced and a year later in 1946, Hesse’s mother takes her own life, shortly before Eva’s 10th birthday.
Eva’s progression into art making was fused by studies at the Pratt Institute and The Art Students League — while interning at Seventeen magazine, where a color-illustrated article about the young artist was published. In 1959, she completed studies at the Yale School of Art and Architecture, where she would engage in painting studies with wonder, under the guidance of Josef Albers and Rico Lebrun. Hesse then returned to New York City and fostered a connection with her milieu; Sol LeWitt, Mel Bochner, Lucy Lippard, Robert Mangold, Sylvia Plimack, Robert Ryman, Mike Todd, Paul Thek and Yayoi Kusama et al. The sentiment is that Eva was supported and deeply cared for by her peers, encapsulated in the experience of Eva Hesse.
Eva Hesse in her studio Image: Hermann Landshoff (1968)
In June 1964, Hesse and her then husband, artist Tom Doyle travelled to Germany, where Doyle was invited by the industrialist Friedrich Arnhard Scheidt to work for a year in preparation for an exhibition. The climate of the marriage was uneasy and while Eva was merely accompanying Doyle, she was provided with materials and a studio space in a disused part of a textile factory — it would mark one of the the most significant phases in her artistic career. This accessibility to a cacophony of discarded materials, stimulated the transition to making three-dimensional works. During this time she made her first sculpture, the iconic relief Ringaround Arosie [1965, Museum of Modern Art], paying tribute to Hesse's friend Rosalyn Goldman and the children’s nursery rhyme. During this period, away from New York is when the notable exchange with close friend Sol Lewitt occurred. In response to Hesse’s grappling with her artistic identity and bemoaning she didn’t know what she was doing — Lewitt proclaims in a letter to Eva, “Just Do!”
[Google “Sol Lewitt letter to Eva Hesse”, it is a potent letter written for any artist or creative person].
The prevailing minimalist movement favored manufactured and hard edged aesthetics. Hesse’s use of unconventional materials was a brave statement, especially for a woman during the 1960s in America — a period when the women’s movement and the sexual revolution were emerging as commanding and liberating forces. Upon returning to New York, she lived and worked at 134 Bowery. This was the time that fiberglass, latex and industrial plastics opened new possibilities in art making for Hesse and the material and corporeality of its structures, offered Hesse a dialogue with making. This sublime interaction enabled her to express herself completely. Between 1965 to Eva’s death [1970]; Repetition Nineteen I (1967), Aught (1968), Augment (1968), Area (1968) and Expanded Expansion (1969) are composed.
Expanded Expansion (1969) Image: Emily Nam (2024, Hauser and Wirth)
“I want to write them a letter and say it is not going to last” - Eva Hesse [1970]
Hesse was aware of the fragility of the materials that she was working with; rubber, latex, cheesecloth. It is a testament and due to the care of a community of people who are committed to preserving the legacy of Eva Hesse, that we have the privilege to view works that were constructed over 50 years ago, in their aged and discolored state. It is the second time in 35 years that Expanded Expansion (1969) - juxtaposed soft, draping panels of rubberized cheesecloth with rigid fiberglass and polyester resin poles - has been on public view. The other was in 2022, after the collaboration of an advisory team (including Lena Stringari, Deputy Director and Andrew W. Mellon Chief Conservator, and Esther Chao, Objects Conservator at the Guggenheim Museum) worked to undertake a complex conservation treatment to reinvigorate this work.
After encountering the exhibition at Hauser & Wirth this past week, I decided to walk with my thoughts from Chelsea. I found myself footsteps behind an older woman and her dog, meandering through the East Village — who I later discovered to be Joan Jonas, an American visual artist and pioneer in the performance art movement of the late 1960s. One of the many women, who has forged her own path with grit and bravery. Her presence solidified one of those rare serendipitous New York moments that shine in a different hue, a sense that someone is trying to scream at me to “pay attention”. As a woman, I am grateful to have the presence of these women in my sphere who have forged paths before me. It is their spirit and fearless gusto for life that holds me in those waving moments of uncertainty, as I continue to step into my own unique and unnerving future.
As an artist, in search of a mystified connection with my practice and the extraction of ‘What is my commitment as an Artist?’, I am reliant on Eva’s cheer. The magnetic pull of the art world is heaving and Eva has given me permission to remain steadfast and “go beyond what I know and what I can know” [Eva Hesse, 1968]. Eva’s impact has spanned generations. In 1992, ‘Hesse: A Retrospective’, one of the first in-depth exhibitions of Hesse’s works, was presented at the Yale University Art Gallery [organized by Helen Cooper, curator of American paintings and sculpture]. Cooper has spoken about the moving impact this exhibition had on a younger generation of artists at that time. One artist I admire most, the late Phyllida Barlow [1944-2023] has herself made comment on the significance of Hesse’s works, to her practice. This present moment is an opportunity to experience Hesse’s evocation and she remains an important precedent for generations to follow.
In an interview with Cindy Nemser for Artforum [1970], Hesse states ‘Life doesn’t last; art doesn’t last.’ Hesse’s work is still alive. Be receptive to what Eva Hesse has to shake within you.
Until July 26 2024, ‘Eva Hesse, 5 Sculptures’ is on view, free to the public, at Hauser & Wirth 22nd St, New York — organized by Hesse estate adviser Barry Rosen, with art historian and critic Briony Fer.