Eva Hesse Drawing
, the first exhibition in over 20 years to focus on the critical role of drawing in the achievements of Eva Hesse (1936-1970), one of the most influential artists of the postwar era, will be on view at the Walker Art Center November 11, 2006–February 18, 2007. Organized by The Drawing Center, New York, and The Menil Collection, Houston, the exhibition provides a rare opportunity to view 150 of Hesse’s fascinating works on paper and is significant as the first public presentation of the sketchbooks, working notes, and diaries, which she kept from the mid-1960s to the end of her life. Eva Hesse Drawing is co-curated by Catherine de Zegher, former Executive Director, The Drawing Center, and Elisabeth Sussman, curator and Sondra Gilman Curator of Photography at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Eva Hesse Drawing will feature some of the artist’s finest drawings alongside a critical selection of sculptures that reflect her investigations into translating the drawn line into three-dimensional space. By juxtaposing Hesse’s drawings and sculptures, the exhibition presents an exciting revision of the conventional interpretation of the working processes of this groundbreaking artist. The exhibition begins with early collages, ink washes, and gouaches from 1960 to 1964 that engage many thematic paradoxes, from biomorphic and geometric abstraction to a mix of organic and inorganic forms. In 1964 and 1965, working in semi-rural isolation in Essen, Germany, Hesse produced a series of drawings in which she delineated contours of interconnected tubes and planes with a controlled line that was at once both gestural and mechanical. This new engagement with the line opened a period of growing confidence and independence. After Hesse’s return to New York in September 1965, her work challenged the geometric regularity and rigidity prevalent in art at the time. She explored ideas such as transience, chance, and difference in her “grid” drawings as well as in her “circle” drawings, in which empty circles were drawn with a compass and graded in washes. In the same year Hesse created several stunning reliefs that combined papier-mâché, cord, paint, and other materials—a practice that she would later revisit with surprising results.
Eva Hesse Drawing also includes the artist’s “test pieces” (1967-1969), a form of three-dimensional sketches in which she experimented with non-traditional media such as latex, rubber, plaster, cheesecloth, aluminum screening, and unfired clay. These works will be exhibited alongside numerous sketches and working notes that offer a unique behind-the-scenes look into the beginnings of some of her most important and well-known sculptures. The exhibition closes with a series of “window drawings,” begun in 1968, which shows a strong relationship to the layering effects found in the artist’s later latex sculptures.
The exhibition features major works loaned by the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, Ohio; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo; Berkeley Art Museum; Daros Collection, Switzerland; The Eva Hesse Estate; and numerous private collections in the U.S. and Europe.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Eva Hesse was born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1936. Three years later, her family fled Nazi-occupied Germany and moved to New York, where she became a U.S. citizen. Hesse earned her BFA in 1959 from Yale University, where she studied painting and drawing with Josef Albers and Rico Lebrun. In her brief career Hesse produced a copious number of drawings while working in a seemingly inexhaustible range of media, from watercolor and pencil to found objects, string, and resin. Filtering the influences of Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Conceptualism, and Minimalism through her own distinctive sensibility, Hesse continually experimented with new materials.
An early and key figure of Post-Minimalism in the United States, Hesse came to be affiliated primarily with “process art,” which refers to the artist’s focus on the physical properties of materials and the process of applying them. This exhibition highlights the crucial role that drawing played in Hesse’s working process, which in turn gave way to an array of highly innovative techniques and styles that still defy classification. As she commented in 1970:
“I had a great deal of difficulty with painting but never with drawing. . . . The translation or transference to a large scale and in painting was always tedious. It was not natural and I thought to translate it in some other way. So I started working in relief and with line—using the cords and ropes that are now so commonly used . . . I varied the materials a lot, but the structure would always be built with cords.” [Cindy Nemser, “A conversation with Eva Hesse” (1970), in Eva Hesse, ed. Mignon Nixon (Cambridge: MIT Press/October Files).]
Hesse’s practice of introducing sculptural materials into drawing and painting continues to influence the multidisciplinary work so prevalent in contemporary art practice.
The Drawing Center and Yale University Press have published a 344-page catalogue to accompany the exhibition featuring full-color reproductions of all the works on view and essays by Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, Catherine de Zegher, Bracha L. Ettinger, Briony Fer, Mignon Nixon, Elisabeth Sussman, Kathryn A. Tuma, and Anne M. Wagner. $50 ($40 Walker members).
Eva Hesse Drawing is organized by The Drawing Center, New York, and The Menil Collection, Houston. The exhibition is made possible by the Robert Lehman Foundation.
Media partner for the Walker’s presentation Mpls.St.Paul Magazine.
The Drawing Center acknowledges the National Endowment for the Arts and Kathy and Richard S. Fuld, Jr., for their major support of this exhibition. The Menil Collection’s presentation was generously supported by The Brown Foundation, Inc. of Houston and Marilyn Oshman, with additional support from the City of Houston.
RELATED PROGRAMS
Target Free Thursday Nights
Thursday, November 9
Lecture: Drawing as Primary Medium, 7 pm
Cinema
Free tickets available from 6 pm at the Bazinet Garden Lobby desk
The exhibition Eva Hesse Drawing presents a vast collection of works on paper that reflects the artist’s investigation of the drawn line and its translation into three-dimensional space. Exhibition co-curator Catherine de Zegher speaks about the development of Hesse’s artistic process and relevance of her extended vision of drawing to contemporary art practice. De Zegher’s unique perspective as the former executive director of The Drawing Center in New York brings to light the important role drawing plays as the “primary medium” of artists working today.
Thursdays, January 4, 11, 18, and 25
Drawing can be the most fun when it focuses on exploration and play. Explore the lines and forms of artist Eva Hesse’s work through these January activities related to drawing. Stretch your understanding of what drawing is by layering materials, finding lines, and working in two and three dimensions. If you think you can’t draw, these activities are for you!
Thursdays, January 4 and 11
Drawing to Trace and Tracing to Draw, 6–9 pm
Star Tribune Foundation Art Lab
Explore ways that lines from everyday objects and materials can be transformed by changing their context. Find and capture lines from a multitude of found images and then trace, layer, transfer, and Xerox, eventually creating your very own work of art! Led by local artist Jennifer Nevitt.
Thursdays, January 18 and 25
It’s All in the Drawing, 6–9 pm
Star Tribune Foundation Art Lab
Consider the ways that drawing and sculpture are related by combining techniques from both art forms. With plastic bags as your canvas, learn how layering, pasting, taping, and molding can be ways to draw and create lines. Use common materials in unexpected combinations to produce something uncommon and beautiful. Let by local artist Mari Richards.
Thursday, January 25
Gallery Talk: Eva Hesse Drawing, 7 pm
Meet in the Bazinet Garden Lobby
Artist Eva Hesse worked at a time when the visual vocabularies of Minimalism and Conceptualism ruled the art world, yet she challenged these conventions in her highly experimental work. On a tour of the exhibition co-curator Elisabeth Sussman discusses Hesse’s use and re-interpretation of the language of Minimalism in both her drawings and sculptures.
Target Free Thursday Nights sponsored by Target.
Additional support provided by the Institute for Museum and Library Services
Drawing Class
The Essential Aesthetic: Drawing and Contemporary Art
Tuesdays, October 31–December 12, 1-3:30 pm
(no class November 21)
$125 ($100 Walker members), includes all materials
From the intimate sketchbook drawings that seem to emerge from the subconscious of Kara Walker to the meticulously planned and highly detailed architectural renderings used by Julie Mehretu in her large-scale paintings, the medium of drawing is an integral part of how many contemporary artists work. In this six-week drawing class, learn to “see” like an artist and enrich your understanding of contemporary art through drawing exercises and by learning more about art in the Walker’s collection. This course will teach participants to work with various media, including pencil, charcoal, and pastels. Contour, gesture, value, and color theory will be explored through exercises in the classroom and in the galleries. In addition to seeing and learning about work on view in the galleries, participants will also have an opportunity to see work not currently on view through “behind-the-scenes” sessions in the Walker’s print study room. The class will feature tours of Eva Hesse Drawing and Body Politics: Figurative Prints and Drawings from Schiele to de Kooning.
Free First Saturday
The Big Draw
Saturday, December 2, 10 am–5 pm, Free
Gallery Sketch
10 am–2 pm
Join artist and Walker tour guide Shannon Steven on a drawing adventure in the exhibition Eva Hesse Drawing.
Art-Making for the Entire Family: Sightless Scribbles
10 am–3 pm
Have you ever tried to draw something you can’t see? This workshop encourages kids to take an experimental approach to doodling.
Performance: Final Legend of Friendly Planet
11 am and 1 pm
Multimedia artists Ann Marie de Lathouder and Adrian Freeman present an interactive story inspired by the great video and card games of our time.
Art-Making for the Entire Family: Sketch Book Adventures
11 am–4 pm
Bind your own sketchbook and fill it with drawings inspired by your Walker visit.
Film: Big Screen Draw
12 noon and 2 pm
Drawings come to life on the big screen in these animated shorts from the Walker’s Edmond R. Ruben Film and Video Study Collection.
Story Reading: Follow the Lines
2, 2:30, 3, and 3:30 pm
Listen to stories that curve, bend, and twist around your imagination.
Free First Saturday programming sponsored by the Medtronic Foundation. Media partner WCCO-TV.
Raising Creative Kids
Cultivating your child’s inner artist, scientist, architect, or designer just got easier with programs that nurture creativity and engage children and their families in new and novel ways. These programs, blog entries, and tips for parents ask what hip kids and their (possibly) cooler parents do to spark creativity.
Arty Pants: Your Tuesday Playdate
For adults and children ages 2–5
Second and fourth Tuesday of every month
November 14 and 28, December 12 (no program on December 26),
11 am–1 pm, Free with gallery admission
“Colorful red, blue, yellow, green in squares, each one a letter of alphabet.”—Eva Hesse
Artist Eva Hesse found great inspiration in going back to the basics, and what better place to start? Adults and kids ages 2–5 will experience the alphabet in a whole new way. After exploring Hesse’s alphabet drawings on a guided gallery tour, participants will add extra color to their favorite ABC song. Families will make art, watch films, and listen to story readings that offer twists and turns on the subject. Early literacy experts from the Hennepin County libraries will be on hand to demonstrate how reading to children sets the stage for better parent-child communication and a lifelong passion for learning.
Gallery Tours
Thursday, November 16
1 pm, Free with gallery admission
Thursday, November 16
6 pm, Free
Friday, November 17
6 pm, Free with gallery admission
Saturday, November 18
12 noon, Free with gallery admission
Saturday, November 25
12 noon, Free with gallery admission
Saturday, December 9
12 noon, Free with gallery admission
Friday, December 22
1 pm, Free with gallery admission
Thursday, December 28
6 pm, Free
Saturday, January 6
12 noon, Free with gallery admission
Friday, January 12
6 pm, Free with gallery admission
Thursday, January 18
1 pm, Free with gallery admission
Sunday, February 4
12 noon, Free with gallery admission
Saturday, February 10
12 noon, Free with gallery admission
Thursday, February 15
6 pm, Free
