Eva Hesse Page #2

HESSE". I'm beginning to sell

and show my work,

in that order.

One gave me the confidence

to proceed to the other.

International Watercolor Show

at the Brooklyn Museum

and 3 young Americans,

my show last evening.

It is the beginning of being fully

in the midst of the art world.

I've been with Tom Doyle

the last three days.

I'm really so happy.

There was a party held at

this friend of mine's place.

And I was in a fight.

This guy was making out

with my girlfriend,

so I hit him.

Eva was at the party

and she took me in the kitchen

and washed my face,

and she was very nice to me, you know.

And that was the first time I met her.

HESSE". Tom is a beautiful human being

and I enjoy all aspects of him.

H is a real, live

and beautiful romance.

Tom was a wonderful, lively, poetic,

funny Irish drunk at that point.

GOLDMAN:
She was warned against him,

that he comes from a very wild crowd,

really Wasn't good for her.

But he gave her something

that she very much needed.

HESSE:
I feel he's really with me

and I am with him.

I have never felt this before.

That summer, Eva and Tom

invited me to go to

George Segal's farm.

DOYLE". All these

young artists are coming up

from New York to do this carnival.

And there was gonna be

a sculpture dance.

I made a sculpture

that was like a fighter plane.

And Eva, H was her

first sculpture, really,

was a very, kind of, formless thing.

Two people got in and danced.

And all these sculptures were dancing.

GOLDMAN:
They also had a happening.

H was living theater

without any script.

HONIG:
There was a dancer, Yvonne Rainer,

who was dancing on the roof of a barn.

SERRA:
Artists were interfacing with

a lot of dancers at the time.

We thought that there were

more ideas generated in dance

than being generated

by sculptors or painters.

HONIG:
Eva had constructed a tube

made of fabric that people

were to wiggle through.

H was fun.

It was artists playing

and having a good time.

HESSE'. All is well.

H's been a beautiful week.

I love Tom more every day.

DOYLE:
Her father said, "/ don't Want

you marrying anyone except a Jew."

So I converted.

I became a Jew. I mean, I went to shul,

I did the whole number.

OHARASH:
You know,

they were not interested in any religion.

But for my father,

and because of our German background,

she went along with H

and Tom went along with H.

DOYLE". Two or three friends of mine

all had never been Bar Mitzvah-ed,

so we had a Bar Mitzvah. We played

Belle Barth records, you know. (LAUGHS)

And gave each other fountain pens,

the whole stick.

Tom was a good and interesting sculptor,

just coming into his mature work

and Eva was clearly a good artist.

But there wasn't anything

unique there, yet.

But she was very ambitious

and full of youthful art energy.

DOYLE". We got a loft

on 19th and 5th Avenue.

H was a great loft.

H was a half a block long.

We rented part of H

out to Eihelyn Honig.

HONIG:
One of the mornings

that I arrived,

I told them about the fact

that I had just seen

a major exhibition at

the Sidney Janis Gallery.

It was called Pop Art.

And I said, "I think

you ought to get over there

"and take a look

and see what's going on.

"It's never gonna be the same."

LIPPARD:
Pop art, of course,

burst onto the scene

and that was a big deal.

Pop art was a sort of game changer.

SUSSMAN:
The discussions

that came up afterwards

of people for and against

H were passionate.

And, of course, Eva

always went to museums

and knew exactly what was going on.

And I have a feeling

that she might have been

more for it than Tom.

WAPNER:
She didn't have

accepted truths.

And she examined and doubted

and, um,

thought about things.

HESSE". Should I impose my

preconceived ideas on painting'?

And to what degree must I go along with

what happens on canvas in the moment'?

BARBARA BROWN". When she was

painting, she was very blocked.

But her early collages

were extraordinary. I mean,

she could draw like nobody.

Anytime she drew anything,

ll was really beautiful.

HESSE". For me,

painting has become that, making art,

painting a painting.

The history, the tradition

is too much there.

I Want to be surprised.

I will continue drawing,

push the individuality of them,

even though they go against

every major trend.

F*** that.

So did everyone I admire.

DOYLE". Eva was working at a jewelry

store on Bleecker Street

and I got a job teaching

at the New School.

And that's one of the two jobs I had,

and that's how we were

sort of living on that.

And then what happened

was Arnold Rudlinger,

the director the Kunstverein,

and a bunch of German collectors

saw my stone sculptures.

Rudlinger was going to

give me a show in Basel.

He said, "How do you

move these things?"

I said, "Well, you have to

build a box and lala..."

And Scheidt said, Look, we have

stone very much like that.

"Why don't you come to

Germany and, you know,

"you can make the sculpture in Germany and

we'll send it to Switzerland, you know?"

And I said, "Yeah, I would do that."

Eva was sort of scared

about going there, you know,

because of what happened...

had happened to her family.

HESSE:
I sit here now

panicked and crying.

The pressure of leaving

Hes heavy on me.

I said, "Look, it's a good time

to be out of New York."

Pop art is a big thing, now.

We'll lei that die down.

And Scheidt was going to give me

a salary and everything, you know.

We won't have to work.

You know, we'll just work on our work.

HONIG:
I remember her saying

that she was frightened

of going back to this place

where she had suffered so much.

CHARASH". But Sol Lewitt,

a close friend, a close confidante,

encouraged her, saying that

she would be well served

to get out of the New York art scene.

She would be able to work

in a much freer manner.

HESSE". Dear Mr. Scheidt,

I have begun to make

preparations for our trip,

so the whole thing is

becoming very real for us.

It was Tom's opportunity.

It was Tom who had been

asked to go to Germany.

H was very hard for her.

But Eva wouldn't let

an opportunity go by.

Eva was a risk taker.

Though Eva was a little bit

more of a wife at that point,

but all that would change.

(TURBINES WHOOSHING)

(SPEAKING GERMAN)

SUSSMAN:
Tom and Eva were

set up in Kettwig,

this town that had

these textile factories

that had been in the family of

Arnard Scheidt for hundreds of years.

Where Eva and Tom lived

were over there,

that was the so-called...

(SPEAKS GERMAN)

But the part where they were working

that was already...

JOHANN". Thai was closed down already.

HESSE". Our studio,

top floor with skylight

and windows every two feet.

I sit and hope I will Work some.

I might just have to believe in me more

before working will

mean something to me.

GABRIELE:
The first time

that I saw Eva,

she gave me a very warm feeling,

a feeling of being welcomed.

I was five-years-old,

and she invited me

to come to the atelier.

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