Eva Hesse [Anglais] [Relié]

The current trend toward having a number of experts write separate essays to accompany the illustrations in an exhibition catalog sacrifices coherency for in-depth analysis of disparate facets of an artist's life or work. This book is a perfect example. This beautifully illustrated catalog of the work of the most exciting female sculptor of the 1960s accompanies a major exhibition this spring at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. It is packed with 22 short essays, six long essays, and a roundtable discussion, all supported by a bibliography and an exhibition history. In her career, tragically cut short by a brain tumor, Hesse (1936-70) produced an extraordinary group of abstract sculptures of resin, latex, and fiber. A second tragedy looms as these unstable materials degrade and the artworks change color and lose their form. This work complements Lucy Lippard's biography of her contemporary and friend, Eva Hesse; Bill Barrette's catalog of Hesse's three-dimensional work, Eva Hesse: Sculpture; Catalogue Raisonn‚; and Helen Cooper's 1992 Eva Hesse: A Retrospective, which is a less complex analysis than the book in hand. Clearly, the time is ripe for a coherent life of Hesse with an assessment of her work and a catalog of both her well-known sculptures and her lesser-known paintings and drawings. In the meantime, this excellent work will fill the gap. Recommended for art collections and academic libraries. David McClelland, Philadelphia
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Although Hesse's revolutionary and enduringly influential sculptures--elegantly fluid abstractions made of latex, rope, and fiberglass that wed the organic with the industrial, the kinetic with the frozen--are always included in modern art surveys, this is the first comprehensive critical study and catalog of her work. Curator Sussman has assembled a strong cast of her peers to discuss various aspects of Hesse's daring oeuvre, from her high-voltage drawings to her use of unconventional materials, "love of line and collapsing form," and self-described "weird humor." Biographical observations are kept succinct, but there's no escaping the poignancy of Hesse's short and "extreme" life. Born in Hamburg in 1936, she fled the Holocaust as a child; her divorced mother committed suicide; her own marriage was unhappy; and she died of cancer at age 34. But her devotion to art was fierce, her talent precocious, and she accomplished in her last five feverish years what others couldn't achieve in decades. Unfortunately, her experimental sculptures are deteriorating, a loss that makes this gorgeously illustrated volume all the more precious. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Beautifully designed and printed, this book pays homage to this major conceptual artist of the 1960s.

Eva Hesse, a pivotal figure in the development of postwar international art, created paintings, sculpture, and works on paper that were striking in their beauty and playful sensibility. Although much has been written about Hesse's dramatic life--her childhood flight from Nazi Germany, her struggles to gain acceptance as a young female artist, her battle with cancer, and her tragic death in 1970 at the age of 34--her art has yet to receive the critical attention it deserves. This lavishly illustrated catalogue redresses that omission, focusing on Hesse's innovative working methods and choices of materials as well as on the larger aesthetic and philosophical questions raised by her artistic practice. The book presents and documents over two hundred works by Hesse in all media. Particular attention is devoted to the degradation and aging of her sculptures over the past three decades. Essays by a distinguished team of writers deal with themes of mutability and decay in Hesse's art; discuss her little-known early career in New York and Germany; explore her innovative use of translucent materials; and examine the role of drawing and collage in her creative process.

This catalogue accompanies an exhibition that will be on view at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art from February to May 2002; the Museum Wiesbaden, Germany, from July to September 2002. Published in association with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

James Meyer is assistant professor of art history at Emory University.

Briony Fer is reader in the history of art at University College, London.

Renate Petzinger is exhibitions curator at the Museum Wiesbaden in Germany.

Elisabeth Sussman is an independent curator living in New York.

Ann Temkin is the Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of 20th-Century Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Gioia Timpanelli is an award-winning storyteller and close friend of the artist.