Eva Hesse

"Eva Hesse and Sol LeWitt formed a close friendship between the late 1950s and Hesse's death in 1970. Converging Lines celebrates this friendship and offers an illuminating look at their close-knit New York circle. Whereas previous scholarship has examined LeWitt's impact on Hesse, this is the first publication to demonstrate that the artists influenced each other's art and lives in reciprocal and profound ways. Richly documented, this book includes a personal recollection by Lucy R. Lippard, a distinguished American art writer and critic who was a close friend of both artists. Also included are reproductions of 39 postcards LeWitt wrote to Hesse during his international travels, along with a poignant five-page letter that he sent Hesse, attesting to his belief in her talent; a previously unpublished interview from 2001 with LeWitt about his relationship with Hesse; and an illustrated chronology drawing upon interviews, photographs, and primary documents from the time. Shedding new light on the careers and personal lives of Hesse and LeWitt, this publication explores the deep connections between two of the 20th century's most important artists.'--Publisher's website.

Eva Hesse (Hamburg, 1936-New York, 1970) ist eine der herausragenden Künstlerinnen des 20. Jahrhunderts. In der zweiten Hälfte der 1960er Jahre experimentierte sie mit neuen Materialien, die in der Objektkunst bis dahin noch keine Verwendung gefunden hatten wie Polyester, Glasfaser und Latex. Hesses Skulpturen, die sich heute in den großen Museen dieser Welt befinden, verbinden auf einzigartige Weise komplexe und zum Teil konträre Aspekte: hart und weich, fragil und präsent, abstrakt und assoziationsreich. Eine von der aufkommenden Minimal Art geprägte Serialität und Reduktion wird in Hesses skulpturalem und zeichnerischen Werk gleichsam aufgeladen von sinnlicher Materialität und Körperhaftigkeit.

"In 1964 the industrialist Friedrich Arnhard Scheidt invited Eva Hesse (1936-1970) and her husband, Tom Doyle, to a residency in Kettwig an der Ruhr, Germany. The following fifteen months marked a significant transformation in Hesse's practice. The artist's studio space was located in an abandoned textile factory that contained machine parts, tools, and materials that served as inspiration for her complex, linear mechanical drawings and paintings. In 1965 Hesse expanded on this theme and began using objects found in the factory and papier-mâché to produce a series of fourteen vibrantly colored reliefs that venture into three-dimensional space with such materials as wood, metal, and cord protruding from the picture plane. With dynamic new scholarship and previously unpublished illustrations, Eva Hesse 1965 highlights key drawings, paintings, and reliefs from this pivotal time and demonstrates how the artist was able to rethink her approach to color, materials, and dimensional space and begin moving toward sculpture, preparing herself for the momentous strides that she would take upon her return to New York."--Publisher's description.