Eva Hesse Drawing

by Catherine de Zegher (Editor)

Eva Hesse (1936--1970) was a highly experimental artist who continually challenged the conventions of her time. For Hesse, drawing played a unique role, providing the nexus between her works in all media. Eva Hesse Drawing is the first book to explore her drawing process, following her work from drawing to painting and sculpture, and always back to drawing. The book features important, recently rediscovered “working drawings,” providing an intimate look at Hesse’s everyday practice and methodology.  

An accomplished draftswoman, Hesse began to develop her wandering, tentative line while studying at Yale University in the late 1950s. Her early 1960s works on paper engaged with visual vocabularies from geometry to biomorphic abstraction. In 1965, Hesse combined her tactile sensibility for materials with her stringlike line to achieve a breakthrough: her astonishing reliefs, which began to bridge the space between two and three dimensions. Balancing the disembodiment of line with its intensified materialization, Hesse went on to develop one of the most innovative oeuvres of the twentieth century, anticipating the hybridization of media and crossing borderlines linking one impossible space to another.

Genres: Art

344 pages, Hardcover

First published November 28, 2006

Reviews

[Lara · Rating 4 out of 5]

The construction of this book is gorgeous.
I have always found Eva Hesse's personal thoughts insightful. She dealt with so many memories from her past and I have always been interested in learning more about her process regarding her conceptual development. The pictures and scans of her sketchbooks are beautiful. Please enjoy the information this book contains. I just wish this was collaborated with her journals more closely.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall an excellent exposition and survey of Hesse' s drawing practice. A couple of the included essays are plastered with artspeak so thick that it becomes ludicrous; others examine Hesse's work with intelligence and refreshing clarity. The abundant illustrations and examples of the artist's visual thought process are the real heart of the book, and worth looking at again and again.

[Jenna Eve Rieker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am very excited about this book. Eva Hesse is one of my favorite artists and I know close to nothing about her- except her tragic death. The reproductions are fantastic and most I have never seen. I know this is going to be top notch.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's interesting to see Hesse's drawings and compare them to the actual sculpture. This book is full of working drawings and sketches from Hesse's journals, giving you an intimate look at her process. I think most anyone would agree that Eva Hesse was a pioneer in the world of conceptual art.

[Karie · Rating 4 out of 5]

lovely, lovely

[Al Matthews · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice.