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Diaries
The long-awaited publication of the personal diaries of pioneering American artist Eva Hesse
Eva Hesse (1936–1970) is known for her sculptures that made innovative use of industrial and everyday materials. Her diaries and journals, which she kept for the entirety of her life, convey her anxieties, her feelings about family and friends, her quest to be an artist, and the complexities of living in the world.
Hesse’s biography is well her family fled Nazi Germany, her mother committed suicide when Hesse was ten years old, her marriage ended in divorce, and she died at the age of thirty-four from a brain tumor. The diaries featured in this publication begin in 1955 and describe Hesse's time at Yale University, followed by a sojourn in Germany with her husband, Tom Doyle, and her return to New York and a circle of friends that included Sol LeWitt, Mel Bochner, Lucy Lippard, Robert Mangold and Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Robert Ryman, Mike Todd, and Paul Thek.
Poignant, personal, and full of emotion, these diaries convey Hesse’s struggle with the quotidian while striving to become an artist.
Published in association with Hauser + Wirth Publishers
Eva Hesse (1936–1970) is known for her sculptures that made innovative use of industrial and everyday materials. Her diaries and journals, which she kept for the entirety of her life, convey her anxieties, her feelings about family and friends, her quest to be an artist, and the complexities of living in the world.
Hesse’s biography is well her family fled Nazi Germany, her mother committed suicide when Hesse was ten years old, her marriage ended in divorce, and she died at the age of thirty-four from a brain tumor. The diaries featured in this publication begin in 1955 and describe Hesse's time at Yale University, followed by a sojourn in Germany with her husband, Tom Doyle, and her return to New York and a circle of friends that included Sol LeWitt, Mel Bochner, Lucy Lippard, Robert Mangold and Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Robert Ryman, Mike Todd, and Paul Thek.
Poignant, personal, and full of emotion, these diaries convey Hesse’s struggle with the quotidian while striving to become an artist.
Published in association with Hauser + Wirth Publishers
- GenresArtDiaryNonfictionMemoir
904 pages, Paperback
Published May 24, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 14, 2025
Really really loved this. She’s so much more negative than I anticipated. So cool to read this and then look at her work which to me seems like a very positive avenue of exploration and curiosity and discovery and wonder. Really incredible read.
September 4, 2023
Transcribed notebooks of 1960s artist who died young of cancer. She writes more about her personal problems than her art. Absolutely no editorial guidance other than a one-page afterword, so if you don't know who she is you're on your own.
April 9, 2023
Very immersive / cathartic reading, felt like I was in her head and lived through her trauma and troubles. Made me feel better about my own struggles as an artist.
December 16, 2025
Eva Eva Eva
December 24, 2016
skimmed
to-buy
April 19, 2020Recommended 5books.com
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews