Radical Women: Eva Hesse

In these tragic times, I was grateful to have listened to Eva Hesse speak about art and absurdity. “Hesse’s life story was marbled by tragedy.” Starting at a young age, she tried to escape the Nazi regime in 1938. The artist has lived through many deaths in her family, including her mother’s suicide when she was 10. Her art career lasted only 10 years, after she was diagnosed with a brain tumor. In the interview, when Hesse tries to speak about her work, she avoids speaking about it directly. She’s more interested in noting the need for her to make, and the absurdity in that need. “My whole life has been absurd. Nothing ever was normal. [she chuckles] The extreme traumas—personal, health, family, war, economy, health, sickness, to my art and my working there, school, my personal, friends— That’s just in life. Then in art, it can’t be separated for me, because my life was so extreme. Art being the most important thing for me, rather than like existence, staying alive. And I could never really separate them. And they became close, enmeshed. And absurdity is the key word.”

Hesse’s work is admired all over the world. Similar to Mary Weatherford, her work was something that I copied as a young art student. Hesse’s sculptures were generous in that way, not hard to figure out how it was made. However, it is the essence of the work that can’t be replicated. Her sculptures came from a sincere place, an emotive space that only she can conjure up. Molesworth note that a part of what makes Hesse work so extraordinary is that the art, even though made in the face of her tragic life was never sentimental or hysterical. The work was absurd in its formal conversation and in its gentle demeanor. Hesse’s art has infinite opportunities for interpretation. She was clear about her desire to make something that was truly hers and find her own inner peace amongst the inner turmoil. She knew her work was powerful and didn’t feel the need to find the exact words for it.