Films
In the Face of It
The life and work of Eva Hesse
Following the exhibition “Eva Hesse. Five Sculptures” presented at Hauser & Wirth New York in 2024, Ursula presents a film about Hesse’s pioneering work with unconventional sculptural materials, such as latex and fiberglass, within the community-driven art world of 1960s New York City.
Featuring the voices of her sister, Helen Hesse Charash, art historian Rosalind E. Krauss, artist Maren Hassinger, and Barry Rosen, advisor to The Estate of Eva Hesse.
“The deterioration of her work started even before she died and it didn’t make her change the materials she used…she sort of kept going in the face of it, just as she kept going in the face of her own mortality.”—Rosalind E. Krauss
Eva Hesse in her Bowery Studio, New York, 1969. Courtesy The Estate of Eva Hesse and Hauser & Wirth
“The work had a presence. It was humorous. It was personal. At the time, so much was inorganic, no sense of the hand anywhere…there was a kind of femininity about it that was beyond femininity.”—Maren Hassinger
Eva Hesse with Expanded Expansion at the 1969 exhibition “Anti-Illusion: Procedures/Materials” at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York © The Estate of Eva Hesse
Marking the 25th anniversary of the estate’s representation by Hauser & Wirth, “Eva Hesse. Five Sculptures” reunited five of her most celebrated large-scale works, all on loan from major American museums and all made in the most intense period at the end of her life from 1967 to 1969.
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A major new volume, focusing on milestone exhibitions of Hesse’s work from 1972 to the present day, is now available from Hauser & Wirth Publishers, “Eva Hesse: Exhibitions, 1972–2022.”
“Eva Hesse. Five Sculptures” was on view from May 2 through July 24, 2024, at Hauser & Wirth New York, 22nd Street.
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Footage from 4 Artists: Robert Ryman, Eva Hesse, Bruce Nauman, Susan Rothenberg (1988) and Victor and Sally Ganz: Discovering Eva Hesse (1999), directed by Michael Blackwood, produced by Michael Blackwood Productions.