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Eva Hess, No title, 1960. 91.4 x 91.4 cm. Oil on canvas. The Rachofsky Collection

Eva Hesse's Spectres, Foreshadowing Eva Hesse's Studiowork

Hammer Museum
10899 Wilshire Boulevard
310-443-7000
Los Angeles
Gallery II
Eva Hesse Spectres 1960
September 25, 2010-January 2, 2011
Eva Hesse Spectres 1960, an exhibition of seminal and
rarely seen paintings by legendary artist Eva Hesse
(1936-1970) was created when Hesse was just 24. These
19 semi-representational oil paintings stand in contrast to
later minimalist structures and sculptural assemblages, yet
constitutes a vital link in the progression of her work.
Several recent museum exhibitions on Hesses work have
featured a few of these paintings from 1960, but none have
considered these works as a group. This timely
reassessment of Hesses career furthers an
understanding of her artistic contributions.
Organized by E. Luanne McKinnon, Director of the
University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, the
exhibition focuses on what McKinnon terms Hesses
spectre paintings for their haunted interiority and attempt
to embody emotional states in abstract form. There are
two distinct groups within this spectre painting series. In
the first, the figures in these intimately scaled (approx. 9 x
12 in.) paintings are gaunt, loosely rendered, standing or
dancing in groups of two or three yet disconnected. The
second group presents both odd, alien-like creatures and

depictions that resemble the artist herself, in traditional

easel-size scale (approximately 32 x 42 inches).
The exhibition considers these semi-representational and
evocative works not merely as self-portraits per se, but as
states of consciousness, and thereby open a dialogue
about Hesse and her aspirations against a diaristic
account of nightmares and visions that remained constant
throughout her life. As McKinnon notes, Looking inwardly
and outwardly and with paint as her guide, she began to
paint herself out and away and ahead The procession
of paintings under examination here represents a rupture
that, once completed (not as a formal solution but rather
as a psychological denouement), settled back into solving
the problems presented in abstraction, eventually evolving
into the constructions that Hesse is lauded for. Against a
body of commentary suggesting these particular works
are abject exercises of self-deprecation, Eva Hesse
Spectres 1960 examines them as testimonies to private
anxiety. This exhibition aims to further understanding the
development of Hesses artistic voice and contribution, as
the spectre paintings demand an historical reconsideration
of when Hesse became "Hesse."
Born in Hamburg in 1936, Eva Hesse and her family fled in
1938 to escape the fate of Germanys Jews and settled in
New York City. She was determined to be an artist from an
early age, striving at first to be a painter. She began to
create startlingly original configurations that exploited the
properties of cheesecloth, rubber, plastic, tubing, cloth,
and other materials. Hesse achieved a level of success
attained by few women of the time. By 1963 she had had
her first one-woman show; by 1968 she had gallery
representation. She died in 1970 of a brain tumor. Two
years after her untimely death, the Guggenheim Museum
held a retrospective of her workthe first such exhibition
organized around a woman.

Eva Hesse, Untitled, 1960, Oil on canvas. 20 x 20". Verso on upper stretcher "August 1960 eva hesse
Top." On lower stretcher "eva hesse 1960." Private collection, New York. Courtesy Hauser & Wirth.

Eva Hesse, Untitled, 1960, Oil on canvas. 18 x 15". The

Museum of Modern Art, New York, gift of Mr. and Mrs.
Murray Charash.

Eva Hesse, Untitled, 1960, Oil on canvas. 49 14 x 49 1/4". Ursula Hauser Collection, Switzerland.

Eva Hesse, Untitled, 1960, Oil on Masonite. 15-1/4 x 12".

Verso in ballpoint pen 'p-e'. The Estate of Eva Hesse,
courtesy of Hauser & Wirth.

Eva Hesse, Untitled, 1960, Oil on Masonite. 15-3/4 x 12"".

Verso in ballpoint pen 'p-a', white 'x' in oil. The Estate of
Eva Hesse, courtesy Hauser & Wirth.

Eva Hesse, Untitled, 1960, Oil on canvas. 49-1/4 x 49-1/4". Alexandra Charish, Los Angeles.

Eva Hesse, Untitled, 1960, Oil on canvas. 18 x 16". Ursula Hauser Collection, Switzerland.

Eva Hesse (American, born Germany, 1936-1970). No title, 1960. Oil on canvas. 91.44 x 91.44 cm. Collection of Barbara Bluhm-Kaul and Don Kaul, Chicago, Illinois,
USA.

Eva Hesse, Inside I, 1967, Acrylic, papier-mch,

wood, cord, wire, 30.5 x 30.5 x 30.5 cm, interior
object: 7 x 21.5 x 23 cm.

Eva Hesse, No title, 1969, Papier-cach, 26.5 x 28.5 x 6.6 cm.

Eva Hesse's Prototypes Find a Defined Place in Her Oeuvre

Hauser & Wirth New York

32 East 69th Street
+1 212 794 4970
New York
EVA HESSE
March 16-April 24, 2010
In 1969, one year before her death at
the age of 34, German-born American
artist Eva Hesse wrote of her desire
to get to non-art, non-connotive, nonanthropomorphic, non-geometric,
non-nothing; everything Its not the
new, it is what is yet not known,
thought, seen, touched; but really
what is not and that is. In her effort to
make works that could transcend
literal associations, Hesse cultivated
mistakes and surprise,
precariousness and enigma. The
objects she produced, at once
humble and enormously charismatic,
played a central role in transforming
contemporary art practice.

Eva Hesse, No title, 1969, Papier-cach, 38.6 x 20.9 x 11.4 cm.

Eva Hesse, No title, 1969, Papier-cach, 39.3 x 37.4 x 14.5 cm.

Hauser & Wirth New York opens an

exhibition of such objects: EVA
HESSE brings together 14 works,
many never before shown in the
United States, that have been
considered improvisational "test
pieces" for larger sculptures. Of
these, eleven are delicate papier
cach forms wisps of assembled
paper, tape, cheesecloth and
adhesive made between 1966 and
1969 that are neither round nor
rectangular, but indeterminate.
Intimate manifestations of the artists
thought process, they evoke the
bodily, suggesting fragments of skull,
sheaths of timeworn parchment,
tablets awaiting manuscript, curving
shadows, the lens of an eyeball.
These objects evade easy definition:
They have been seen variously as
experiments, little pieces, molds, tests
for larger works, or finished works in
their own right. In her recent research
on Hesses work, prominent British
art historian Briony Fer has renamed
these objects collectively as
"studioworks," proposing that their
precarious nature places them at the
very heart of Hesses influential
practice and raises important
questions about traditional notions of
what constitutes sculpture.
EVA HESSE presents its contents
upon a plinth that loosely alludes to
how these works may have been
encountered in Hesses studio,
temporarily arranged in groups on the
artists work table, always subject to
change. The objects in this exhibition
is included in the museum survey Eva
Hesse: Studioworks at Fundaci
Antoni Tapies in Barcelona (May 14August 1, 2010), the Art Gallery of
Ontario in Toronto (September 10,
2010-January 2, 2011), and the
Berkeley Art Museum in California
(January 26-April 24, 2011).
In New York in the 1960s, Hesse was
among a group of artists, including
Robert Morris, Bruce Nauman,
Richard Serra and Robert Smithson,
who engaged materials that were
originally soft and flexible: aluminum,
latex rubber, plastic, lead, polythene,
copper, felt, chicken-wire, dirt,
sawdust, paper pulp and glue. Often
unstable, these elements yielded
works forever alive in their relativity
and mutability. Hesse was aware she
produced objects that were
ephemeral, but this problem was of
less concern to her than the desire to
exploit materials with a temporal

dimension. Much of the tumescent,

life-affirming power of Hesses art
derives from this confident embrace
of moment. As she stated in an
interview with Cindy Nemser in 1970,
Life doesnt last; art doesnt last.

Eva Hesse, No title, 1969, Papiercach, 52.7 x 19 x 13.8 cm.

Eva Hesse, No title, 1969, Cheesecloth, adhesive, 36.2 x 30.4 x 8.5 cm.

Photo of Eva Hesse holding

Ingeminate, 1965.

Eva Hesse, No title, 1969, Papier-cach, 25.6 x 23.1 x 5.8 cm.

Eva Hesse, No title, 1969, Papier-cach, 15.5 x 15.3 x 8.3 cm.

Eva Hesse, Inside II, 1967, Acrylic, papier-mch,

sawdust, wood, cord, metal, paper, 13.5 x 18.5 x
18.7 cm.

Eva Hesse, Accession II, 1967,

galvanized steel, plastic tubing

Eva Hesse, Legs of a walking ball, May 1965, paint, cord, papier-mach, metal on masonite.

Eva Hesse's Lifetime of Large, Small, and Undefined Works

Camden Arts Centre

Arkwright Road
+44 (0)20 7472 5500
London
Eva Hesse: Studiowork
December 11, 2009March 7, 2010

Eva Hesse, S-89, Test Piece for Repetition Nineteen II. Latex, cotton, rubber. Courtesy Florette and Ronald Lynn, New
Jersey, 1967.

Throughout her career, Eva

Hesse produced a large number
of small, experimental works
alongside her large-scale
sculpture. These objects, socalled test pieces, were made in
a wide range of materials,
including latex, wire-mesh,
sculp-metal, wax and
cheesecloth. Left in her studio at
the time of her death, sold or
given to friends during her
lifetime, these objects evade
easy definition, seen variously
as experiments, little pieces,
moulds, tests or finished pieces.
A solo presentation of the work
of German-born American artist
Eva Hesse (1936-1970), a
major figure in post-war art. The
exhibition is the result of new
research by renowned Hesse
scholar Professor Briony Fer
and is curated by Fer and Barry
Rosen, Director of The Estate of
Eva Hesse.
In her recent research on
Hesses work, Briony Fer
collectively renamed these
objects as studioworks,
proposing that their precarious
nature places them at the heart
of Hesses work and questions
traditional notions of what
sculpture is.
This exhibition brings together
around fifty works drawn from
major public and private
collections around the world,
showing works which are
extremely fragile and rarely
travel. The exhibition and the

accompanying major publication

offer a timely new interpretation
of Hesses historical position, as
well as highlighting her
relevance for contemporary art
now.
Eva Hesse (January 11, 1936May 29, 1970), a German-born
American sculptor, known for
her pioneering work in materials
such as latex, fiberglass, and
plastics, was born into a family
of observant Jews in Hamburg,
Germany. When Hesse was
two years old, her parents,
hoping to flee from Nazi
Germany, sent Eva and her
older sister to the Netherlands.
She and her sister were
separated from their parents for
a few months before they were
reunited. After living in England
for a while, the family emigrated
to New York City in 1939. They
settled in Manhattan's
Washington Heights.

Eva Hesse, S-105. Fibreglass, polyester resin, plastic. Courtesy University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific
Film Archive. Gift of Mrs Helen Charash, 1968.

After graduating from New

York's School of Industrial Art in
1952, Hesse studied at New
York's Pratt Institute (19521953) and Cooper Union (19541957), then at the Yale School of
Art and Architecture (19571959), where she studied under
Josef Albers and received a
B.F.A. On returning to New York
she made friends with many
young artists. In 1961, she met
and married fellow sculptor Tom
Doyle. In August 1962 Eva
Hesse and Tom Doyle
participated in an Allan Kaprow
Happening at the Art Students
League of New York in
Woodstock, New York. There
Hesse made her first three
dimensional piece: a costume
for the Happening. In 1963 Eva
Hesse had a one-person show
of works on paper at the Allan
Stone Gallery on New York's
Upper East Side.
The couple whose marriage
was coming apart lived and
worked in an abandoned textile
mill in the Ruhr region of
Germany for about a year
during 1964-1965. Hesse was
not happy to be back in
Germany, but began sculpting
with materials that had been left
behind in the abandoned
factory: first relief sculptures
made of cloth-covered cord,
electrical wire, and masonite,
with playful titles like Eighter
from Decatur and
Oomamaboomba. Returning to
New York City in 1965 she
began working in the materials
that would become
characteristic of her work: latex,
fiberglass, and plastics.
She was associated with the
mid-1960s postminimal anti-form
trend in sculpture, participating
in New York exhibits such as
Eccentric Abstraction and
Abstract Inflationism and Stuffed
Expressionism (both 1966). In
September 1968 she began
teaching at the School of Visual
Arts. 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; her large piece Expanded
Expansion showed at the
Whitney Museum in the 1969
exhibit Anti-Illusion:
Process/Materials. There have
been dozens of major
posthumous exhibitions in the
United States and Europe,
including at The Guggenheim
Museum (1972, the San
Francisco Museum of Modern
Art (2002), The Drawing Center
in New York (2006) and the
Jewish Museum of New York
(2006).
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."

In 1969 she was diagnosed with

a brain tumor. Her death in 1970
ended a career spanning only
ten years.
"The joy and freedom of
Hesses art is staggering. Any
young artist could get an
education just by coming to this
show a few times."
Jonathan Jones, The
Guardian
Eva Hesse: Studiowork is
organised by The Fruitmarket
Gallery, Edinburgh in
collaboration with Camden Arts
Centre, London; Fundacio
Antoni Tapies, Barcelona; Art
Gallery of Ontario, Toronto and
Berkeley Art Museum and
Pacific Film Archive.
The exhibition is supported by
The Foyle Foundation, Columbia
Foundation, Mike Davies
Charitable Settlement and Brian
Boylan.

Eva Hesse, Ingeminate, November 1965, papier-mach, cord, enamel over balloons, surgical hose.

Photo of Eva Hesse holding Ingeminate, 1965.

Eva Hesse, Repetition Nineteen III, 1968, fiberglass and polyester.