Eva Hesse: Circles and Grids
$15
PurchaseEva Hesse: Drawing
May 6 – July 15, 2006
Eva Hesse: Drawing offered the opportunity to view not only some of the finest finished drawings of Eva Hesse (1936 - 1970), but also many rarely exhibited sketchbooks and notebooks and a large group of her never-before-seen "working drawings." Although the German-born American sculptor was known primarily for her pioneering work in materials such as latex, fiberglass, and plastics, her drawings lay at the core of her artistic practice as she worked through a myriad of highly innovative styles. By juxtaposing finished drawings and working drawings with a small selection of more sculptural works, this exhibition traced the materialization and development of Hesse's themes and characteristic motifs such as the grid, the bodily, seriality, ephemerality, and language, among others.
The exhibition featured around 100 of the artist's "finished" drawings—including drawings from each period of her mature phase—as well as examples of her very early drawings; major examples of Hesse's "reliefs" of 1965 as well as a group of sculptural works; her important working notebooks and diaries which she began keeping in the mid-1960s and which she kept for the rest of her life; and 56 of Hesse's "working drawings."
Rather than present the full spectrum of Hesse's drawings in the manner of a conventional, chronological retrospective, the exhibition was organized around themes that emerged within Hesse's oeuvre over time. In this way, The Drawing Center's exhibition provided rare insights into Hesse's creative process, the conceptual crossovers among the different mediums she employed, and the conceptual origins of some of her best-known works. Hesse's expressive variety of line in mediums of both two and three dimensions was one of the most fascinating aspects of her work. This exhibition brought into relief how Hesse's line eventually came to leave a two-dimensional plane to enter into space. For audiences, inclusion of Hesse's working drawings from 1965 until her death provided a rare "behind the scenes" look at her everyday practice of thinking, note-making, and sketching.
The exhibition was co-curated by Catherine de Zegher and Elisabeth Sussman, Curator and Sondra Gilman Curator of Photography at The Whitney Museum of American Art. Eva Hesse: Drawing was organized by The Drawing Center, New York, and The Menil Collection, Houston.
Eva Hesse
Born in Hamburg Germany in 1936, Eva Hesse is one of the icons of American art of the 1960s, her work being a major influence on subsequent generations of artists. Comprehensive solo exhibitions in the past 50 years, as well as a retrospective that toured from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art to the Museum Wiesbaden in Germany and finally to the Tate Modern in London, have highlighted the lasting interest that her oeuvre has generated. Hesse cultivated mistakes and surprises, precariousness and enigma, to make works that could transcend literal associations. The objects she produced, at times barely present yet powerfully charismatic, came to play a central role in the transformation of contemporary art practice.
Artworks
Ephemera
Credits
Major support for Eva Hesse: Drawing was provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and Kathy and Richard S. Fuld, Jr. Additional support was provided by the New York State Council on the Arts.
