19 Facts About Eva Hesse

1.

Eva Hesse was a German-born American sculptor known for her pioneering work in materials such as latex, fiberglass, and plastics.

2.

Eva Hesse is one of the artists who ushered in the postminimal art movement in the 1960s.

3.

In 1944, Eva Hesse's parents separated; her father remarried in 1945 and her mother committed suicide in 1946.

4.

In 1961, Eva Hesse met and married sculptor Tom Doyle ; they divorced in 1966.

5.

Eva Hesse graduated from New York's School of Industrial Art at the age of 16, and in 1952 she enrolled in the Pratt Institute of Design.

6.

In November 1961, Eva Hesse married fellow sculptor Tom Doyle.

7.

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.

8.

Eva Hesse's first sculpture was a relief titled Ringaround Arosie, which featured cloth-covered cord, electrical wire, and masonite.

9.

Eva Hesse is better known for her sculptures and because of this, her drawings are often regarded as preliminary steps to her later work.

10.

Eva Hesse handled it like house paint, brushing layer upon layer to build up a surface that was smooth yet irregular, ragged at the edges like deckled paper.

11.

Eva Hesse's work Contingent from 1968 is an ideal example of this concept.

12.

Eva Hesse worked and sometimes competed with her male counterparts in post-minimalist art, a primarily male-dominated movement.

13.

Eva Hesse's drawings have often been noted as drafts for later sculptures, but Eva Hesse herself disavowed any strong connection.

14.

Eva Hesse's art is often viewed in the context of the many struggles of her life.

15.

Eva Hesse was among the first artists of the 1960s to experiment with the fluid contours of the organic world of nature, as well as the simplest of artistic gestures.

16.

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.

17.

The exhibition was pivotal in Eva Hesse's career, securing her reputation at the time.

18.

An early one was at the Guggenheim Museum, while in 1979, three separate iterations of an Eva Hesse retrospective were held, entitled Eva Hesse: Sculpture.

19.

In Europe, Eva Hesse had recent exhibitions at the Fundacio Antoni Tapies in Barcelona and at the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh.