Skip to main content
Label Text Prior to her death in 1970 at age 34, Eva Hesse attended Cooper Union in New York and the Yale school of Art and Architcture. There she studied with Josef Albers and began to define herself first as a painter. Her drawings were created around 1960-61.Many of the shapes found in her sculptures began to emerge, like irregular rectangles, distorted circles, elongated geometric forms. In 1964 Hesse began experimenting with sculpture using raw materials from a weaving factory such as string, plaster and wire. After a trip to Europe in 1964 she became intrigued with so-called non-art materials. Hesse worked obsessively to create a personal idiom apart from the influence of other artists. The sculpture, Untitled, 1970, is representative of Hesse's large scale sculpture and incorporates the "window" shapes, one of several important forms used in her work shortly before her death.It is typical of her late work which is characterized by an appeal to tactile senses, a preoccupation with light and intense color, the panelled or bordered form, and the use of "soft lines" of the aluminum wire wrapped with many layers of gauze. The sculpture was one of the last completed by Hesse. Source: News, January/February 1989.
Exhibition History"Commitment, Community and Controversy: The Des Moines Art Center Collections," Des Moines Art Center, Jan. 24 - May 10, 1998

"From Body to Being: Reflections on the Human Image," Des Moines Art Center, Feb. 1 - May 4, 1997

"Eva Hesse: A Retrospective," Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT, Apr. 22 - Aug. 2, 1992; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden,Washington, D. C., Oct. 13, 1992 - Jan. 10, 1993

"The Abstract Tradition in American Art," Des Moines Art Center, Dec. 7, 1991 - Feb. 23, 1992

"Eva Hesse 1936-1970: Sculpture," Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, May 4 - June 17, 1979 (cat. no. 38). Circulated to Rijksmuseum Kroller-Muller, Otterlo, June 30 - August 5, 1979; Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover, August 17 - September 23, 1979.

"Eva Hesse: A Memorial Exhibition," Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, December 7, 1972 - February 11, 1973 (cat. no. 49); Circulated March 6, 1973 - February 3, 1974 as follows: Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Il; Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, CA; University Art Museum, Berkeley, CA.

"Tony Delap/Frank Gallo/Eva Hesse: 'Trio'," Owens-Corning Fiberglas Center, New York, May 14 - September 5, 1970. Travelled to Owens-Corning Fiberglas Center, Detroit, MI, October, 1970.
Published References"Plates D" study guide "Modern Art: Practices and Debates", the Open University,

NAPA CONTEMPORARY ARTS FOUNDATION, 1991, b/w ill.

"Eva Hesse: A Retrospective," Helen A. Cooper, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1992, exh. cat. color ill. p.241

DMAC News, Nov./Dec. 1992, p.2

Milton Keynes, U.K., 1993, b/w ill. pl.D67

EVA HESSE, IVAM Centre, Julio Gonzalez, Generealitat Valenciana, Valencia, Spain, 1993, b/w ill. fig.23, p.190

Thomas Buser, EXPERIENCING ART AROUND US, West Publishing Company, St. Paul, MN, 1995, color ill. p.320

DMAC News, May/June 1995, p.9

Andrew Causey, SCULPTURE SINCE 1945. Oxford University Press, Oxford & New
York, 1998, ref. & color ill. p.138

AN UNCOMMON VISION: THE DES MOINES ART CENTER, Des Moines Art Center, 1998, ref. p.139, b/w ill. pp.138 & 139

Jonathan Fineberg, ART SINCE 1940: STRATEGIES OF BEING, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice Hall, 2000, pp.314 - 15, ill.

Janson & Janson, "The Basic History of Western Art, 7/e", Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2005, color ill. and ref. pg.610

Marien & Fleming, "Fleming's Arts & Ideas 10/e", Wadsworth Thomson Learning, 2005, color ill. and ref. pgs.617-618

Jonathan Fineberg, "Art Since 1940: Strategies of Being", Third Edition, Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2011, color ill. pg.299

Jeffrey Saletnik, "Josef Albers Late Modernism and Pedagogic Form", University of Chicago Press, 2022, illus. p.99, fig. 2.14, text, pp 98-99, photo credit, p. 99
DimensionsOverall (variable): 90 7/8 × 147 5/8 × 42 1/2 in. (230.8 × 375 × 108 cm)
Overall (a, variable): 89 1/4 × 23 1/4 × 36 1/2 in. (226.7 × 59.1 × 92.7 cm)
Overall (b, variable): 90 1/8 × 27 × 38 1/2 in. (228.9 × 68.6 × 97.8 cm)
Overall (c, variable): 90 1/2 × 29 × 37 in. (229.9 × 73.7 × 94 cm)
Overall (d, variable): 90 7/8 × 37 × 45 in. (230.8 × 94 × 114.3 cm)
Accession Number 1988.6.a-.d
Classificationssculpture
Catalogue raisonnéBill Barrette: Eva Hesse Sculpture, Catalogue Raisonne, 1989, Timken Publishers Inc, New York
ProvenanceEstate of Eva Hesse; (Fourcade Droll, New York); Sally and Victor Ganz, New York [purchased from the previous, 1972]; Estate of Victor W. Ganz; (Robert Miller Gallery); Des Moines Art Center [purchased from the previous, 1988]
No title
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Eva Hesse
1967
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Ronald Wendell Davis
1971
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Peter Alexander
1969
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Petah Coyne
1997-1998
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
El Anatsui
2012
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Truman Lowe
1990
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
William T. Wiley
1975
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Tony Feher
2012
Photo Credit: Paul Crosby
Phyllida Barlow
2012