2002 Art Book, "Eva Hesse", by Elizabeth Sussman for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

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Offered is a smashing Art book, "Eva Hesse", published by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, edited by Elizabeth … Read more Offered is a smashing Art book, "Eva Hesse", published by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, edited by Elizabeth Sussman. The book presents and documents over 150 works by Hesse in all media. 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 and pliable materials; and examine the role of drawing and collage in her creative process. In addition, a panel of curators, conservators, and colleagues of Hesse considers the complex issues raised by the aging and degradation of a number of her sculptures over the decades.
Published on the occasion of the exhibition Eva Hesse, held at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (February 2–May 19, 2002) and Wiesbaden Museum, Germany (June 15–October 13, 2002); soft cover edition
9.625" wide, 11.5" tall, 1.25" deep, 344 pages
ISBN: 0918471664
Published: 2002, San Franciso Museum of Modern Art

Eva Hesse was a German-born American artist who made innovative sculptural installations. Working with textiles, latex, and fiberglass, Hesse's works ushered in unique ideas.The artist took on some of the motifs of her peers Sol Lewitt and Joseph Beuys, in rejecting the historical definitions of sculptural forms. “Chaos can be structured as non-chaos,” she once expressed. One of her most important works Hang Up (1966), is an exploration of space which consists of a long metal loop attached to a wooden stretcher bar. Born on January 11, 1936 in Hamburg, Germany, Hesse fled Germany during World War II, settling in New York in 1939. She studied at Cooper Union until 1957, but later completed her BFA at Yale University, where she studied with Josef Albers. The artist emerged in New Yorks's avant-garde scene in 1966, with her inclusion in Lucy Lippard’s landmark exhibition “Eccentric Abstraction”. Hesse died on May 29, 1970 in New York, NY from a brain tumor at the age of 34. Today, Hesse's works are in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., and the Tate Gallery in London, among others.

Edited by Elisabeth Sussman

Foreword by Elaine McKeon and Volker Rattemeyer; essays by Briony Fer, James Meyer, Renate Petzinger, Elisabeth Sussman, Gioia Timpanelli, and Michelle Barger and Jill Sterrett; additional contributions by Julia Bryan-Wilson, Robin Clark, and Scott Rothkopf; roundtable discussion by Bill Barrette, Michelle Barger, Sharon Blank, Helen Hesse Charash, Robin Clark, Briony Fer, Werner Kramarsky, Jay Krueger, Martin Langer, Sol LeWitt, Carol Mancusi-Ungaro, Barry Rosen, Scott Rothkopf, Linda Shearer, Naomi Spector, Jill Sterrett, Carol Stringari, Elisabeth Sussman, Gioia Timpanelli, and John S. Weber, with introduction by Ann Temkin
Eva Hesse, a pivotal figure in the development of postwar international art, created paintings, sculptures, and works on paper that are striking in their enigmatic beauty and tactile 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 artist in New York, her battle with cancer, and her tragic death in 1970 at the age of thirty-four — her artwork has yet to receive the widespread public attention it deserves. This lavishly illustrated volume provides an in-depth examination of Hesse’s entire oeuvre, focusing on her innovative working methods and choices of materials as well as on the larger aesthetic and philosophical questions raised by her artistic practice. See less