Portrait of a Rebel: Eva Hesse
An important American sculptor, Eva Hesse is relatively unknown. Born in Germany in 1936, she immigrated to New York as a child, tragically succumbing to a brain tumor at age 34. During her brief but prolific career, she helped usher in the post-minimal art movement in the 1960s with her pioneering sculpture techniques which blended latex, fiberglass, and plastics.
Eva was inspired by ongoing discovery. She wrote, “It is my main concern to go beyond what I know and what I can know.”
In 1957, she graduated from Cooper Union. Two years later, Eva earned a B.F.A. from the Yale School of Art and Architecture and immediately moved back to New York. She immersed herself in painting, drawing and reading. In 1961, Hesse married the well-regarded American sculptor Tom Doyle.
The couple moved to Germany in 1964 for a year while Doyle worked on a commission. Haunted by the Holocaust, Eva struggled. Her husband suggested she stop painting and start working with string and plaster. Working with her hands sparked a breakthrough and a different path: Eva became a sculptor. She worked at breakneck speed until her death in 1970. Her large fiberglass and latex works are recognized by museums and art historians worldwide as major works of the 1960s.
“Eva Hesse was one of the greatest artists of the 20th Century. Her idea was to make an art that was on the borderline of uncontrollability.”
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