#Helen Charash

[mybeingthere]

Eva Hesse (1936 – 1970), was a Jewish German-born American sculptor, known for her pioneering work in materials such as latex, fiberglass, and plastics. She is one of the artists who ushered in the postminimal art movement in the 1960s.Hesse was born into a family of observant Jews in Hamburg. 

When Hesse was two years old in December 1938, her parents, hoping to flee from Nazi Germany, sent Hesse and her older sister, Helen Hesse Charash, to the Netherlands via Kindertransport.

After almost six months of separation, the reunited family moved to England and then, in 1939, emigrated to New York City, where they settled into Manhattan's Washington Heights. In 1944, Hesse's parents separated; her father remarried in 1945 and her mother committed suicide in 1946.

In 1969, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and she died in 1970, at the age of 34.

Her art is often viewed in light of all the painful struggles of her life including escaping the Nazis, her parents' divorce, the suicide of her mother when she was 10, her failed marriage, and the death of her father. While experiences no doubt had profound impressions on Hesse, the true impact of her artwork is in her inventive uses of material, her incredibly contemporary response to the minimalist movement, and her ability to usher in the postmodern and postminimalist art movements.

Danto describes her as "cop[ing] with emotional chaos by reinventing sculpture through aesthetic insubordination, playing with worthless material amid the industrial ruins of a defeated nation that, only two decades earlier, would have murdered her without a second thought."

In 2016, a documentary titled Eva Hesse, premiered in New York directed by Marcie Begleiter. (mostly from wikipedia)

[la-semillera]

Eva Hesse & Nelly Sachs

UNA RÁFAGA DE VIENTO

con los alientos de los muertos.

El pescador de caña saca el pez de plata

a través de la sociedad verdadera de los ángeles.

 

Oración de las agallas sangrientas.

 

Pero en el oficio divino

duermen las mujeres ancianas

a pesar del perfume de lavanda

y de las letras que salen ardiendo

y les consumen los ojos -

_ Nelly Sachs, de Nadie Sabe, en Viaje a la transparencia. Obra poética completa. Editorial Trotta 2009. Trad. José Luis Reina Palazón

_ Eva Hesse, No title, 1962. Collage, crayon, and graphite on paper, 23.8 × 30.6 cm. Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH. Gift of Helen Hesse Charash, 1982.102.25. © The Estate of Eva Hesse. Courtesy Hauser & Wirth.

[jmarksthespots]

[#ART #POETRY #FILM #DANCE] Target #FirstSaturday: Beyond the Blues with Queen GodIs, the Martha Redbone Roots Project, Chloë Bass, the Brooklyn Dance Festival, Pamela Sneed and Geko Jones and Chiquita Brujita Presented by the @brooklynmuseum x @targetstyle  *EVERY FIRST SATURDAY* | 5-11pm  Brooklyn Museum | 200 Eastern Parkway Brooklyn, NY  Admission: FREE 

Music: Martha Redbone Roots Project | 5:00–7:00 p.m. Martha Redbone Roots Project’s indie soul blends folk and Appalachian sounds, and pays tribute to Redbone’s Cherokee, Choctaw, Shawnee, and African American roots. Part of Carnegie Hall's Neighborhood Concert Series.

New York City Participatory Budgeting | 5:00–7:00 p.m. Propose and vote on community projects that affect your neighborhood. Council Members across the city are asking residents how to spend at least $34 million in capital funding for projects including improvements to schools, parks, libraries, and public housing. Voters should be at least 14 years old and live in a participating Council District.

Film: Eva Hesse | 5:30 p.m. Eva Hesse (Marcie Begleiter, 2016, 108 min.) captures New York’s 1960s downtown art scene through the short and extraordinary career of German-born American artist Eva Hesse. Followed by a talkback with the artist’s sister Helen Charash and the film’s producer, Karen Shapiro. 330 free tickets at the Admissions Desk at 5 pm.

Performance: Chloë Bass | 6:00 p.m. Conceptual artist Chloë Bass’s lecture performance #sky #nofilter interrogates a chronicle of everyday photographs taken during a year of racial trauma and critically questions what we all share when we look to the sky. 25 free tickets at the Admissions Desk at 5 pm.

Curator Tour: Infinite Blue | 6:00 p.m. Joan Cummins, Lisa and Bernard Selz Senior Curator of Asian Art, offers an inside look at Asian artworks showcased in the exhibition Infinite Blue. 

Emerging Leaders of New York Arts | 6:00–8:00 p.m. Take a stand for the NEA. Stop by the ELNYA table to get tips for contacting your representatives (and write postcards on the spot!), participate in a public art project about the impact of the arts, and join our #SaveTheNEA selfie campaign.

Hands-On Art | 6:00–8:00 p.m. Get inspired by the colors of Infinite Blue and create your own marbled paper using the Japanese suminagashi, or “floating ink,” technique. 330 free tickets at the Admissions Desk at 5 pm. 

Dance and Workshop: Brooklyn Dance Festival | 7:00–9:00 p.m.  Brooklyn Dance Festival is in residence for the second time this year to present performances by a variety of emerging dance companies. Participate in a dance workshop afterward.

Pop-Up Poetry: An Address of the Times | 7:00 p.m. To kick off National Poetry Month, writer and performer Pamela Sneed presents a series of readings by spoken word artists Heather Johnson, t’ai freedom ford, and Timothy Du White.

Music: Geko Jones and Chiquita Brujita | 8:00–10:00 p.m. Geko Jones and Chiquita Brujita host performances dedicated to the divine feminine and all things blue. Includes Jones’s DJ set highlighting female musicians of the Afro-Latin diaspora, all-female Brazilian drumline Fogo Azul, a pop-up installation of blue spiritual art, Aina Luz singing to the orishas in Yoruba, and dance by Brujita.

Concert: Queen GodIs with Special Guests | 8:30–10:00 p.m. This Brooklyn-born lyricist—think Maya Angelou meets hip-hop—performs excerpts of new and previous work, a collection of gender- and genre-bending verses in the key of Michelle Obama. Followed by a talkback with the artists. 330 free tickets at the Admissions Desk at 7 pm.

[suzylwade]

Eva Hesse: Oberlin Drawings This monumental tome contains the entirety of the important German artist’s drawings held in the collection of the ‘Allen Memorial Art Museum', ‘Oberlin College’, Ohio. The ‘AMAM’ was the first museum to purchase a sculpture by Hesse, Laocoon, in 1970. In gratitude for its recognition of Hesse's work, and following the artist's untimely death, her sister Helen Hesse Charash generously donated the artist's notebooks, diaries, sketchbooks, photographs and letters to the museum. Hesse’s drawings played a crucial role in her work, which in turn gave way to an array of highly innovative techniques and styles that today still defy classification. As she commented in 1970: “I had a great deal of difficulty with painting but never with drawing ... the translation or transference to a large scale and in painting was always tedious.... So I started working in relief and with line.” Hesse’s custom of introducing sculptural materials into drawing and painting continues to influence art-making today. Eva Hesse (1936–70) was one of the foremost artists of the 20th century. Her work combined the seriality and reductionism of 1960s minimalism with emotion, sensuousness and physicality. Her work is in the collections of the ‘Museum of Modern Art’, ‘Tate', ‘Guggenheim’ and many others. ‘Eva Hesse: Oberlin Drawings’ is published by ‘Hauser & Wirth’ and out now. #neonurchin #neonurchinblog #dedicatedtothethingswelove #suzyurchin #ollyurchin #art #music #photography #fashion #film #words #pictures #neon #urchin #evehesse #artist #drawings #sculpture #book #german #tomdoyle #evehesseoberlindrawings #allenmemorialartmuseum #AMAM #oberlincollege #hauserandwirth https://www.instagram.com/p/B2loA1yAHqW/?igshid=kzg619j9odms

[njvirtualexhibition-blog]

Eva Hesse 

American, born 1936-1970

Untitled

1960

36 x 36 in, Oil on canvas

Art Institute of Chicago, Gift of Helen Charash

[madilynskeyreid]

Eva Hesse

Eva Hesse

Eva Hesse was a German-born American sculptor known for her pioneering work in materials such as latex, fiberglass, and plastics. She is one of the artists who ushered in the post minimal art movement in the 1960s.

Born: January 11, 1936 Hamburg, Germany

Died: May 29, 1970 (aged 34) New York City, U.S.

Nationality: American

Education: Yale University, studied with Josef Albers at Yale, Cooper Union, Pratt Institute, Art Students League of New York

Known for: Sculpture

Movement: Postminimalism

Life:

Hesse was born into a family of observant Jews in Hamburg, Germany, on January 11, 1936. When Hesse was two years old in December 1938, her parents, hoping to flee from Nazi Germany, sent Hesse and her older sister, Helen Hesse Charash, to the Netherlands to escape Nazi Germany.

After almost six months of separation, the reunited family moved to England and in 1939, emigrated to New York City. In 1944, Hesse's parents separated; her father remarried in 1945 and her mother committed suicide in 1946.In 1962, Hesse met and married sculptor Tom Doyle (1928–2016); they divorced in 1966.

In October 1969, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and she died on May 29, 1970, after three failed operations within a year. Her death at the age of 34 ended a career that would become highly influential, despite spanning only a decade.

Education:

Hesse graduated from New York's School of Industrial Art at the age of 16, and in 1952 she enrolled in the Pratt Institute of Design. She dropped out only a year later. When Hesse was 18, she interned at Seventeen magazine. During this time she also took classes at the Art Students League. From 1954–57 she studied at Cooper Union and in 1959 she received her BA from Yale University. While at Yale, Hesse studied under Josef Albers and was heavily influenced by Abstract Expressionism

Inspiration:

Hesse's early work (1960–65) consisted primarily of abstract drawings and paintings.

In 1965 lived and worked in an abandoned textile mill. The building still contained machine parts, tools, and materials from its previous use and the angular forms of these disused machines and tools served as inspiration for Hesse’s mechanical drawings and paintings. Her first sculpture was a relief titled Ringaround Arosie, which featured cloth-covered cord, electrical wire, and masonite. This year in Germany marked a turning point in Hesse's career. From here on she would continue to make sculptures, which became the primary focus of her work. -

Returning to New York City in 1965, she began working and experimenting with the unconventional materials that would become characteristic of her output: latex, fiberglass, and plastic

Hesse’s interest in latex as a medium for sculptural forms had to do with immediacy. In her artwork Untitled (Rope Piece), Hesse employed industrial latex and once it was hardened, she hung it on the wall and ceiling using wire."Industrial latex was meant for casting. Hesse handled it like house paint, brushing layer upon layer to build up a surface that was smooth yet irregular, ragged at the edges like deckled paper."

Hesse's work often employs multiple forms of similar shapes organized together in grid structures or clusters. Retaining some of the defining forms of minimalism, modularity, and the use of unconventional materials, she created eccentric work that was repetitive and labor-intensive

Many feminist art historians have noted how her work successfully illuminates women’s issues while refraining from any obvious political agenda.

Her art is often viewed in the context of the many struggles of her life. This includes escaping from the Nazis, her parents' divorce, the suicide of her mother when she was 10, her failed marriage, and the death of her father.

Work:

Hesse's work often shows minimal physical manipulation of a material while simultaneously completely transforming the meaning it conveys.

Simplistic  and complex

Debates about what pieces are considered complete and finished works, and which are studies, sketches, or models

Her work is often described as anti-form, ie a resistance to uniformity

Her work embodies elements of minimalism in its simple shapes, delicate lines, and limited color palette.

Things folded, things piled, things twisted, things wound and unwound; tangled things, blunt things to connect to; materials that have a congealed look, materials that seem lost or discarded or mistreated; shapes that look like they should have been made of flesh and shapes

All of her work, and especially her drawings, are based on repetition and simple progressions

With the exception of fiberglass, most of her favored materials have aged badly (Sans III can no longer be exhibited to the public because the latex boxes have curled in on themselves and crumbled.)”Life doesn’t last; art doesn't last.”

Over 20 of her works feature in the Museum of Modern Art, in New York. The largest collection of Hesse's work outside of the United States is in Museum Wiesbaden, "Female Artists of the Twentieth Century". One of the largest collections of Hesse's drawings is in the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College, which also maintains the Eva Hesse Archive, donated to the museum in 1979. Other public collections include the Art Institute of Chicago, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the National Gallery of Australia, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Tate Gallery, the Jewish Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Experience [creative practice/process]

What is the nature of their creative practice?

How do they make their work?

What is their work environment (e.g. studio) like?

Do they work with others? How?

What tools/equipment/processes do they use?

What materials do they use?

What time scale/duration (how long does it take)?

What are the lighting qualities/needs/opportunities?

Sound/audio qualities/needs/opportunities?

What could Massey CoCA/Design students learn from their creative process / what aspect(s) would be amazing for them to experience?

What is the nature of their creative practice?

Hesse's work is trying to open, playing with materials and forms, studio space. She mixes the ridiculous with the fragile. Creating work related to her incredible complex history and every day reality. Trying to be one of the hardest things it is to be, an individual. “All I wanted was to find my own scene, my own world. I wanted it to be mine.” Created for the purpose of seeing “I remember I wanted to get to non- art, non cognitive, non anthropomorphic, non geometric, non nothing”

She works with new and different materials such as latex, fiberglass and plastics.  The latex comes from tree sap which is harvested from the tree. It gets prevulcanised e.g sulphur is added so it solidifies into something which is more permanent. She likes to be true to materials and their form, however often manipulates them to make them her own. She accepts her limitations and takes chances within her art pieces stating “the project makes itself”.

She began her career through drawing and painting, however she focused on sculpture in her later years.  

Eva is a solo artist who completes all her works independently, however towards the end of her career, she was too weak to do everything alone therefore had assistance in creating her sculptures. Throughout Hesse's career she worked within multiple different studio spaces which gave her the freedom to do what she liked when she liked. Her creative spaces heavily influenced her work; an example of this was her time spent within an abandoned textile mill. The building still contained machine parts, tools, and materials from its previous use and the angular forms of these disused machines and tools served as inspiration for Hesse’s mechanical drawings and paintings. Her first sculpture was a relief titled Ringaround Arosie, which featured cloth-covered cord, electrical wire, and masonite.

What tools/equipment/processes do they use?

Her work is often described as anti-form, i.e. a resistance to uniformity. Her work embodies elements of minimalism in its simple shapes, delicate lines, and limited color palette. Her early life and experiences influenced her material use, with the exception of fiberglass, most of her favored materials such as latex have aged badly (Sans III can no longer be exhibited to the public because the latex boxes have curled in on themselves and crumbled.) “life doesn’t last, art doesn’t last. It doesn’t matter”.

She often creates her work through folding, piling , twisting things, wounding and unwinding things, tanglin things, blunt things connected to; materials that have a congealed look, materials that seem lost or discarded or mistreated; shapes that look like they should have been made of flesh and shapes. All of her work, and especially her drawings, are based on repetition and simple progressions. She also dips things in rope, raps objects, saws and sands materials stating she is “Always aware of taking order vs chaos, stringing vs mass, huge vs small. Try to find the most absurd  opposites. Considering the counteration, always creates something more interesting than something average, normal, right size, right proportion.”

In addition to her large-scale sculptures, over the course of her career, she produced a number of smaller works. Use of new, synthetic materials such as fiberglass and latex, changes color over time, allows Eva to explore the temporal dimension of art, and to create work that interacts with light in a variety of ways. Focusing on the industrial,organic, solid, hollow, the transparent and the opaque elements within her works.

What could Massey CoCA/Design students learn from their creative process / what aspect(s) would be amazing for them to experience?

Eva hesse experienced alot within her life starting an early age escaping Nazi Germany, up until the end of her life where she battled from a brain tumor. Everything that happened to her good or bad empowered her. Creating works which spoke to younger generations of artists. Eva created art with the purpose of seeing “ I remember I wanted to get to non- art, non cognitive, non anthropomorphic, non geometric, non nothing”. She saw the creation and experience of art to be a gift ““I think art is a total thing. A total person giving contribution” which relates to the idea of koha. I believe Massey students  should be able to experience a space which allows them to create art, share art and experience art with complete freedom. Hesse teaches us to play and be completely original. Therefore I am inspired to create a space with no limitations, a space they can manipulate, learn, make mistakes and create work, similar to that of Hesse's studios which she describes in a quote “All I wanted was to find my own scene, my own world. I wanted it to be mine.”

Her sculpture Addendum is based on order and repetition, with a precise mathematical sequence determining the space between each unit. Yet it also allows a touch of chaos, as the cords hang down and curl in an unruly tangle on the floor.

Hesse loved latex. I imagine her pleasure talking shop with Mr Niccio at Cementex on Canal Street, where she bought her supply. The pleasure of exploring latex's properties and listing them later in her journal: liquid rubber that could be applied by brush, that remained flexible while conforming to a shape, that immediately took the imprint of any surface it came into contact with. A neutral colour unless pigment was introduced, translucent or opaque depending on how many layers applied. Sets after 24 hours. Chemical additions can make it go rigid, crack and turn yellow. Responsive, malleable and unstable; a life of its own. At some moment Hesse knew her work would have a chance to grow old, to age, as she would not.

Encounter [exhibit/display]

What does your creative practitioner produce?

How or what are the conditions for the exhibition or display of their work?

Is the work static/complete, time-based, live, participatory?

What display equipment/infrastructure might be required?

What are the material qualities of the work?

What time scale/duration (how long does it take)?

What are the lighting qualities/needs/opportunities?

Sound/audio qualities/needs/opportunities?

What could Massey CoCA/Design students learn from their work / what aspect(s) would be amazing for them to encounter?

Eva Hesse is best known for her production of sculptures. However Hesse's early work (1960–65) consisted primarily of abstract drawings and paintings. The exhibition spaces where her works are displayed are often large open minimalistic areas. The rooms are generally painted white with  hardwood floors or concrete painted light-gray, giving a sense of Hesse's working studio. Bright white lighting highlights her works within the space.

A Lot of her sculptures are hung from the ceiling, connected to the walls and or flooring, therefore her exhibition spaces often have large areas for the pieces to hang. An example of this can be seen within one of her popular pieces “No Title”, made from Latex, rope, string, and wire. The piece is hung from thirteens hooks paced in the walls and ceilings of the installation’s location. The ropes are flexible and therefore, like many of her works, can be placed differently during each install. On Hesse’s original concept drawing is a note stating, “hung irregularly tying knots as connections really letting it go as it will. Allowing it to determine more of the way it completes itself.”

Eva Hesse's works are often manipulated and practically complete, however she took chances and allowed the piece to “make itself”. Creating work which was the borderline of uncontrollability. The materials eva hesse used to make her work, such as latex and fiberglass had qualities which changed overtime. Some may argue this was purposeful, due to evas opinion that “life doesn’t last, art doesn’t last. It doesn’t matter” or a representative of her life experiences. Therefore her pieces are complete however can also be seen as time based or live. An example of this can be seen within “aught”.  "Aught," is a latex piece by Hesse which is 39 years old and has signs of aging. Overtime latex can become brittle and snap, it can become sticky, or can have a “wet” texture. Because aught is hung from the ceiling, the latex can begin to sag and drip. Preserving Hesse's work is controversial  as it's hard to understand the fine line between intervening so much in the treatment that is it changes the materiality of the piece and interfering with it enough to ensure it is preserved for many years to come.

What are the material qualities of the work?

The materials used are often manipulated into different forms and shapes, layered and folded. The sculptural pieces often introduce a lot of textured surfaces such as brush strokes. Eva hesse often embraces when her work doesn't go as expected and works with the material qualities rather than against.

Eva Hesse's works are often on a larger scale and regularly have repetitive qualities or multiple pieces within the work. Her works often take a long period of time and often  takes months to complete, it is labour that requires great patience. All her later sculpture required this intensity; binding, winding, knotting, the considered layering of latex, each layer having to dry slowly before the next could be added.

Translucent fiberglass allows light to pass through the containers glowingly, lending the composite artwork a calming pastoral or even quasi-spiritual quality.

It's as if she wants to incorporate a light source into the structure of the work; in this way shadow is registered on the surface of the piece. In her later work Eva Hesse incorporated light into sculpture; her later materials both reflect and absorb light,  the translucent shimmer and glow of the latex and fiberglass in the later work is crucial. Her pieces point to the ways artwork does not and cannot control its lighting conditions. They create shapes and forms of shadows.

What could Massey CoCA/Design students learn from their work / what aspect(s) would be amazing for them to encounter?

I think it would be interesting for Massey students to encounter the process and works of eva hesse. A space where they can witness the detail and material manipulation. To learn some of the process she took to make it and potentially have a go at creating a similar piece also. A space where they can see the sculptures making  themselves (before and after). (potentially creating a space which is one large artwork that is manipulated and changed over time by the audience e.g seats can be rearranged therefore changing the sculptural structure all together.

Exchange

What aspects of the creative practitioner’s practice, ethos or way of engaging with their communities/audiences might lend themselves to an act/event/performance of exchange?

What is being exchanged? Is it something physical/material? Information/ideas? Conversation? Labour? Energy? Power?

What is the process of exchange? Who is involved and how do they interact?

What are the spatial qualities/needs/opportunities for this exchange?

How might this engage with the creative and wider community in relation to your site?

Who makes up this community (the potential audience)?

What can they offer or benefit from in relation to your creative practitioner and vice versa?

Is there an opportunity to invite or engage with a new community through the work of your creative practitioner?

Eva hesse exchanges the gift of completely original art and sculpture. Her works inspired younger generations of artists and designers. Eva Hesse's pieces are different and give people the inspiration to create art with no limitations to material use, scale, duration etc. she embraces her past struggles and understands that it allows her to create the pieces she does. I believe her confidence to create individual works inspires and generates ideas for her audience, therefore gifting the power of inspiration and individuality. The process of exchange involves the audience and the art piece. Eva hesse's pieces are often hung, layered or arranged therefore the audience has many viewpoints and tends to feel engulfed when standing close to each piece. The pieces often appear simple and 2d from far away, however upon getting closer the audience can unpack the textures, qualities and process which went into creating each work.  In order for Eva Hesse's works to stand out and maintain their full potential, the space I feel needs to be minimalistic and ordered, so allow the audience to focus on the small details within the piece.

How might this engage with the creative and wider community in relation to your site?

The potential audience would be students of Massey university, staff and the wider public. I think the work would be more so focused towards massey students for a space where they can create, learn, build relationships and embrace their creativity. I feel there is the opportunity to engage with the public, introduce them to eva hesse, her life, work and processes.

[viparts]

An Unlikely Matchup of Paper and Steel

An Unlikely Matchup of Paper and Steel

Eva Hesse, “No title” (1954), ink on paper, 11 x 8 5/8 inches, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Gift of Helen Hesse Charash (all images courtesy Hauser & Wirth)

They sounded like an odd pairing when the announcement arrived: Eva Hesse and John Chamberlain, featured in the exhibitions, Forms Larger and Bolder: EVA HESSE DRAWINGS and John Chamberlain Baby Tycoons, at Hauser & Wirth’s uptown townhouse.

Wh…

[lunaciclo]

ORDER AND CHAOS: FROM THE DIARIES OF EVA HESSE

An artist whose short career was troubled by both psychological and physical trauma, Eva Hesse (1936–70) left journals and other written records of her tragic life and her intense commitment to her work. A documentary on the postwar sculptor, directed by Marcie Begleiter, is screening at Film Forum in New York this week. Below, some excerpts from these documents originally published in our Summer 1983 issue. —Eds.

All of the following passages, unless otherwise indicated, are excerpted from the diaries, notebooks, sketches, student essays, letters and other papers in the Eva Hesse Archives at the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, donated by the artist's sister, Helen Hesse Charash, and by Donald and Philip Droll. Selections are taken from the diaries if no other source is given; entries from Oct. 28, 1960 through April 21, 1964 are from a diary still in the possession of Mrs. Charash.

Eva Hesse was born in Nazi Germany in 1936. She was not quite three years old when, together with her sister Helen, she was put on a children's train to Amsterdam, where she was later rejoined with her parents and brought to New York in 1939. During the early '40s, Eva's beloved mother became mentally ill, was hospitalized, and then divorced from Eva's father. Her equally loved father remarried soon after, and in 1946, when Eva was 10, her mother took her own life. Besides this loss and "abandonment," Eva carried the fear that she might have inherited her mother's instability and would follow the same course. In 1961, Eva met and married Tom Doyle, The Eva Hesse revealed in her diaries is as psychologically disturbed as one might expect from such a biography. But she is also stubbornly persistent, courageous, faithful, cognizant of her own shortcomings, ambitious and, though tormented by self-doubt, convinced of her significance as an artist.  but by 1964-65, when they spent a year in Germany, their marriage had already begun to break up. Eva's father died in 1966, soon after she and Doyle had separated. Eva finally accepted the fact that her husband would not return to her (although she never divorced him), and she began to learn to control—or at least to live with—her persistent feelings of anxiety, rejection and desertion. She was working full force and becoming increasingly recognized when cancer struck in the spring of 1969. She underwent surgery for a tumor of the brain three times; yet during this last year of her life she produced some of her greatest works. She was only 34 when she died on May 29, 1970.

The Eva Hesse revealed in her diaries is as psychologically disturbed as one might expect from such a biography. But she is also stubbornly persistent, courageous, faithful, cognizant of her own shortcomings, ambitious and, though tormented by self-doubt, convinced of her significance as an artist. The passages I have culled from Hesse's diaries (my primary source) include just about all she recorded there on art; otherwise, the diaries deal almost totally and painfully with her personal life. Significantly, there are fewer entries from the time of her meeting and marrying Tom Doyle until the happiness of their life together began to be threatened in 1964. Then she turned again to her diary as an outlet for her anxious emotions, recurrent dreams and nightmares, and her feeling of being lost and abandoned. From 1967 on, however, as she grew more secure in her work, the diaries change in tone and become simply engagement books, listing appointments and chores to be done; but there are also many loose sheets with ideas and sketches for sculpture accompanied by brief notations, such as: "Square patches rubber over canvas/rubber strands from centers/or over mesh (folded on hooks to hang over wire)."

It was after Hesse's return to New York in 1965 from her year in Germany that she began to produce the distinctive sculptures and drawings upon which her reputation is based. She was one of the first, most significant and influential artists to reject the strictures of the Minimalist mode, the style with which her friends LeWitt, Bochner and Smithson were commonly, if not always accurately, associated. Since she extolled the personal, organic, unexpected, irrational and "absurd" (her word), Hesse had little use for the rationally ordered, geometric forms of extreme Minimalism, nor for its unbroken edges and deliberately machine-made look. Although she was especially indebted to Sol LeWitt; her first major freestanding sculpture, the Laocoön of 1966, in which she used his trademark of the open cube, may also be seen as a symbolic stepping away from her mentor and from the type of work he represented. The cubes in Laocoön arise from structural necessity at least as Since she extolled the personal, organic, unexpected, irrational and "absurd" (her word), Hesse had little use for the rationally ordered, geometric forms of extreme Minimalism, nor for its unbroken edges and deliberately machine-made look.  much, and probably more, than from esthetic choice. The sculpture's gray, obsessively wrapped, tall, thin form reaches up toward the sky, but is hopelessly weighted down by the tangled coils that hang and droop around it.

http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-features/magazine/from-the-archives-order-and-chaos-from-the-diaries-of-eva-hesse/

diary entries

[mybeingthere]

Eva Hesse (1936 – 1970), was a Jewish German-born American sculptor, known for her pioneering work in materials such as latex, fiberglass, and plastics. She is one of the artists who ushered in the postminimal art movement in the 1960s.

Hesse was born into a family of observant Jews in Hamburg. When Hesse was two years old in December 1938, her parents, hoping to flee from Nazi Germany, sent Hesse and her older sister, Helen Hesse Charash, to the Netherlands via Kindertransport.After almost six months of separation, the reunited family moved to England and then, in 1939, emigrated to New York City, where they settled into Manhattan's Washington Heights. In 1944, Hesse's parents separated; her father remarried in 1945 and her mother committed suicide in 1946.

In 1969, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and she died in 1970, at the age of 34. Her art is often viewed in light of all the painful struggles of her life including escaping the Nazis, her parents' divorce, the suicide of her mother when she was 10, her failed marriage, and the death of her father. While experiences no doubt had profound impressions on Hesse, the true impact of her artwork is in her inventive uses of material, her incredibly contemporary response to the minimalist movement, and her ability to usher in the postmodern and postminimalist art movements.

Danto describes her as "cop[ing] with emotional chaos by reinventing sculpture through aesthetic insubordination, playing with worthless material amid the industrial ruins of a defeated nation that, only two decades earlier, would have murdered her without a second thought."

In 2016, a documentary titled Eva Hesse, premiered in New York directed by Marcie Begleiter. (mostly from wikipedia)

[mybeingthere]

Eva Hesse (1936 – 1970), was a Jewish German-born American sculptor, known for her pioneering work in materials such as latex, fiberglass, and plastics. She is one of the artists who ushered in the postminimal art movement in the 1960s.

Hesse was born into a family of observant Jews in Hamburg. When Hesse was two years old in December 1938, her parents, hoping to flee from Nazi Germany, sent Hesse and her older sister, Helen Hesse Charash, to the Netherlands via Kindertransport.After almost six months of separation, the reunited family moved to England and then, in 1939, emigrated to New York City, where they settled into Manhattan's Washington Heights. In 1944, Hesse's parents separated; her father remarried in 1945 and her mother committed suicide in 1946.

In 1969, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and she died in 1970, at the age of 34. Her art is often viewed in light of all the painful struggles of her life including escaping the Nazis, her parents' divorce, the suicide of her mother when she was 10, her failed marriage, and the death of her father. While experiences no doubt had profound impressions on Hesse, the true impact of her artwork is in her inventive uses of material, her incredibly contemporary response to the minimalist movement, and her ability to usher in the postmodern and postminimalist art movements.

Danto describes her as "cop[ing] with emotional chaos by reinventing sculpture through aesthetic insubordination, playing with worthless material amid the industrial ruins of a defeated nation that, only two decades earlier, would have murdered her without a second thought."

In 2016, a documentary titled Eva Hesse, premiered in New York directed by Marcie Begleiter. (mostly from wikipedia)