Eva Hesse
It is not easy to classify the artist Eva Heather into a certain artistic genre. Researchers have always had different opinions on this, but on one point they can agree: "She is a rebel of minimalism." Even though she died at the age of 33, she still caused a huge response in the American art scene in the second half of the last century. How did she rebel against minimalism?
The intricate web of rubber-impregnated threads and thin steel wires that make up Eva Hesse's iconic artistic landscape also makes her an outlier in the art world of the 1960s, when minimalism was dominating artistic creation with a single, pure geometric rule form and indifferent, resolute masculinity.
Ridiculous undertones of life
Eva Heather was included in her work Untitled
Eva Heather was born in 1936 to a German-Jewish family. When she was two years old, in order to escape nazi racial persecution, her parents decided to send her (only two years old) and her sister Helen Hesse to the Netherlands for refuge. It took six months for the family to be reunited in Britain after a long period of hardship.
Eva Heather, Sans II, Glass Fiber, Polyester Resin, 96.52× 218.44× 15.56 cm, 1968
In 1939, the family immigrated to the United States. But what awaits them is not a happy new life. Only five years later, Eva Heather's parents divorced and the family was broken; the father soon remarried and started a new family; and under this blow, the mother, who suffered from severe depression, committed suicide.
Eva Heather, Metronomic Irregularity I, Wood, Paint, Metal, Wire, 30.5×45.7×5.1cm, 1966
This turbulent experience left a shadow over Eva Heather's life. Her sister has publicly stated that Heather has severe separation anxiety. This may explain why she repeatedly uses intricate threads in her works to try to compensate for some kind of fracture.
Eva Heather, Hang Up, Acrylic, Wood, Cotton, Steel Cable, 182.9×213.4×198.1cm, 1966
Eva Heather, Addendum, Paper, Wood, Rope, 12.4× 302.9×20.6cm, 1967
Eva Heather once said, "For me, art and life are inseparable. If I could say what it was... That's the whole absurdity of life. "Absurdity is the background of her life, but also the background of her art."
Art is life itself!
Eva Heather in studio, 1968
Eva Heather's art derives from minimalism, but slides into a very different aesthetic path. Unlike the inedible fireworks of minimalism, she deftly learned how to give abstract forms a certain figurative psychological emotion with the simplest materials, and to closely associate art with her own life.
Eva Heather, Accession IV, Steel, Rubber, 20.6×20.3×21cm, 1968
The turbulent experience has created his sensitive, fragile and restless character. For her, the cruel war is always a nightmare in her heart. Her 1965 work Ishtar was given a certain fascination and fear by herself, with Eva Heather noting: "Plasterboard showed me the Nazi execution ground. ”
Eva Heather, Ishtar, Plastic, Paper, Acrylic Paint, Rope, 91.4×19×6.3 cm, 1965
But she also makes no secret of her neurotic eccentric humor, as exemplified by her attempts to break through the two-dimensional painting plane. In one of her 1965 works, there are pulsating colors, curly surfaces and hanging branches casting shadows on the plane.
Eva Heather, Legs of a Walking Ball, Varnish, Egg Whites, Enamel, Rope, Metal, Wallpaper, Wood, 45.1×67×14cm, 1965
Eva Heather, Oomamaboomba, Paint, Varnish, Rope, Metal, Dust, Glue, 56×65×13cm, 1965
In these works, an inflated, fluctuating emotion spreads, oscillating back and forth between abstraction and figuration. The same is true of its early paintings. In these works, Eva Heather depicts her private life and spiritual world between abstraction and figuration.
Eva Heather, Utitled, oil on canvas, 94.1×94.1cm, 1960
Eva Heather, Untitled, oil on canvas, 94.1×94.1cm, 1960
Her desire to succeed in painting like her childhood idol, the Abstract Expressionist painter Willem de Kooning, but always had a mediocre response, made her wonder if she was not talented. But talent exists, but not in painting – but in sculpture.
The process is the most important thing!
Eva Heather is working with soft materials, 1966
In creating sculpture, unlike the purely rigorous arrangement and combination of the same schema in minimalist sculpture, Eva Heather cherished the accidental and unknown surprises of artificial production. The repetition of non-mechanical elements gives his work a vibrant sensibility and flexibility.
Eva Heather, S-105, Fiberglass, Polyester Resin, Plastic, 1968
She used her work Repetition Nineteen III to "declare war" directly on the rules of minimalism. The 19 fiberglass barrels placed on the ground in the work are not only of different sizes, but also crooked and oblique, all handmade by the artist. There are no established laws here, everything is weird and unique.
For an artist, a pre-conceived work of art is incredible. Improvisation and the unknown are sacred things that cannot be taken away from artistic creation. The final form is not the key, the process itself is the meaning of artistic practice.
Eva Heather, who is improvising
As a result, she prefers all kinds of uncertain, organic materials that change with time and space. Wrapped, sewn and bundled tirelessly by Eva Heather, these materials are transformed into layers of skin armor that the artist himself never expected.
Walls: Eva Heather, Aught, Latex, Canvas, 4 pieces, 198.1 ×101.6cm, 1968; Ground: Eva Heather, Augment, Latex, Canvas, 17 pieces, 198.1 ×101 .6cm each, 1968
Eva Heather, Contingent, Cheese-Wrapped Cloth, Latex, Fiberglass, 350×630×109cm, 1969
As Eva Heather put it, "My work goes its own way beyond my expectations." She sees every work as non-work, as an organism independent of her own will.
Use soft materials!
Eva Heather with husband Tom Doyle, 1958
How did Heather discover the value of these soft materials in sculpture? This stemmed from an artist's residency project experience. In 1964, Eva Heather and her husband, tom Doyle, a sculptor, returned to their homeland and lived and worked for more than a year in a studio converted from an abandoned textile factory.
Eva Heather, Not Yet, Net, Polyethylene, Paper, Lead, Rope, 180.34×39.37×20.96cm, 1966
In the abandoned factories of the Ruhr area, she was inspired by machine components, textiles, oils and industrial rubber. She began to use these materials to make installations. After returning to New York, Eva Heather added non-traditional materials such as rope and steel cable to her creation.
Eva Heather, No Title, Latex, Rope, Rope, Wire, 1962
Ropes and rubbers with different hardness and ductility permeate each other and weave into a net, presenting a flexible tension. Interestingly, at each exhibition, the artist had to take the work apart and reassemble it after entering the museum. Therefore, every time they are exhibited, these works will have a new look.
Eva Heather, Ennead, Acrylic, Paper, Plastic, Plywood, Rope, 1966
However, these organic materials can age and even damage over time. Heather says that when someone pays for these works, she actually feels a little guilty in her heart, because these works cannot last forever. "Life doesn't last, art doesn't last" art doesn't last), she once sighed.
Eva Heather's Expanded Expansion is changing with the naked eye every moment.
In a word. Eva Heather, 33, died of a brain tumor due to years of age-old exposure to toxic industrial materials and without protective measures. Two years later, the Guggenheim Museum held a retrospective for her, the first time the museum had held a retrospective for a woman.
After her death, the desktop of Eva Heather's studio remained intact with objects.
She pioneered the use of flexible materials in sculpture, provided an anti-formal tendency for installation art, and prompted a division within minimalism, diversifying the art of the 1970s.
Before her death, Eva Heather refused to label herself a feminist label in an interview, arguing that the use of flexible materials had nothing to do with her gender. In her eyes, Excellence has no sex, she is just born soft, but tough.
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[Editor, text/Chen Chen]
[This article was originally produced by Harper's Bazaar Art Department and may not be reproduced without permission]