Eva Hesse

For German author, publisher, see Eva Hesse (author) (de) (born 1925)

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Eva Hesse (1936 - 1970), was born in Hamburg, Germany. When Hesse was two years old, her family fled from Nazi Germany. She was separated from the rest of her family because of an illness, because Americans at the time generally did not accept sick immigrants. They did finally reunite, living in Manhattan's Washington Heights.

Hesse graduated from Yale in 1959. Upon moving to New York she met and married fellow sculptor Tom Doyle. The couple returned to Germany where they lived in a textile mill where she continued her work in Latex, fiberglass, and plastics.

In 1969 she was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Her death in 1970 ended a career spanning only ten years.

Her art is often viewed in light of all the painful struggles of her life including escaping the Nazis, her parents' divorce, the suicide of her mother at age ten, her failed marriage and the death of her father.

Hesse is one of a few artists who led the move from Minimalism to Postminimalism. She was influenced by and in turn, influenced many famous artists of the 1960's through today.

See also

• List of notable brain tumor patients

Bibliography

• Eva Hesse. 1992 Da Capo Press, Inc. Lucy Lippard. illus. Trade Paper. 251p.
• Eva Hesse Sculpture. 1992 Timken Publishers, Inc. Bill Barrette. illus. Trade Paper. 274p.
• Eva Hesse Paintings, 1960-1964. 1992 Robert Miller Gallery. Max Kozloff. Edited by John Cheim and Nathan Kernan. illus. Trade Cloth. 58p.
• Four Artists: Robert Ryman, Eva Hesse, Bruce Nauman, Susan Rothenburg. Michael Blackwood Productions, Inc. Color VHS 45 min.