Eva Hesse

Date of Birth:  1936
Date of Death:  1970

Eva Hesse was a Postminimalist sculptor known for her abstract use of nontraditional materials like latex, fiberglass, and felt. She was born in 1936 in Germany to Jewish parents and moved to the United States with her family during World War II. Her parents subsequently separated and when she was 10 years old her mother committed suicide. Hesse studied at New York's School of Industrial Art, Pratt Institute, Cooper Union and the Yale School of Art and Architecture. In 1963 she had her first one-person show at Allan Stone Gallery and continued to exhibit in various galleries throughout the 1960s despite the incredibly minimal visibility of most women artists at the time. In 1961 she married sculptor Tom Doyle and when the couple moved to Germany in 1964 Hesse began using materials she found in the abandoned factory in which they lived and worked. They returned to New York in 1966 and divorced shortly after. In 1968 Hesse began teaching at the School of Visual Arts in New York and had her only one-person sculpture exhibition called Chain Polymers at Fischbach Gallery. Hesse died of a brain tumor in 1970 at the age of 34.

Though Hesse's career spanned less than a decade she was considered to be hugely influential to the Minimalist movement and is considered by many to be a pioneer of feminist art. She wanted to "challenge the norms of beauty and order" and many of her pieces contain abstract images of the female body. In addition, much of Hesse's work reflected the hardships of her childhood by exploring the fragility of life and art. Her experiences with persecution, the tragic loss of her mother and her own health problems informed her desire to create art that reflected the transience of life. Most of the materials she used do not hold up well over time and even in their deterioration seem to hold a message about the human experience. She once said "Art doesn't last. Life doesn't last. It doesn't matter". Her art suggests that while life and art are fleeting, they can still be beautiful.