Eva Hesse Page #6

of someone using space that way.

And I always... whenever I see it,

I say, "Ooh, those are my sheets."

(LAUGHING)

HESSE:
The whole thing is ludicrous.

It's the most ridiculous

structure that I ever made,

and that is Why it is really good.

CHARASH:

My father came to that gallery.

He looked so stern and so unhappy.

Knowing my father, he had to be proud

of Eva to be in an exhibition.

But I think he was just

confused by the art

and didn't understand it.

I was pretty madly in love with Eva.

And I've learned subsequently that a

lot of guys were madly in love with Eva.

She was very soulful.

I'm not sure how orthodox

or practicing Eva's family was,

but her Jewishness was obvious.

It's a spirituality

and I think H expressed itself

in Eva's art.

HONIG:
She was making

these circles in grids.

And I gave her this paper

that was clay based,

and she loved it, because it soaked

the ink up in a certain way.

They were exquisite

and I've never forgotten.

They said something to me

that I wanted in my work.

HESSE:
Weather varied from 103 to

107 degrees Fahrenheit.

Sol and I went

to the Modern and movies.

WAPNER:
There was a very strong

relationship between Sol and Eva.

They had so much in common

and cared for each other so much.

And she expressed to me that,

"It would be so nice if I could love Sol

and if we could be together."

HESSE". The days passed

with the most unbearable heat.

I fear giving way.

Without Sol, I would.

BROWN:
He adored her

and never got tired

of indulging her and being kind to her

and being an inspiration.

ANDRE:
Eva was the love

of Sol Lew/it's life.

And Eva loved Sol.

I once asked Eva, I said,

"You know, Sol's a great guy.

"He's a great artist and he loves you

and you love him.

"How come you never got together?"

And she said,

"You don't go to bed with your brother,"

which was, to me, very touching.

And I understood,

you know, what she meant.

HESSE:
I am numb.

Daddy is dead.

CHARASH:
My father was in Europe.

He got sick and died.

It was a nightmare for both of us.

HESSE". Sol and I walked

New York City today.

There's not a thing I can do.

OHARASH:
Eva was devastated

with my father's death,

just totally devastated.

And I think theirs was

a real love relationship at that time.

It was his Evachen.

HESSE:
l stood tall

at my father's funeral.

I was big inside,

not the scared, helpless child.

I loved my father.

H showed.

Daddy...

your books you made for me

are my thoughts of you.

I would have liked you to know

about the shows and articles.

You would have been so pleased

and proud and less scared for me.

We were always too scared, you and I.

We even shared that.

WILLIAM:
Please, always realize,

dear Evachen,

you will never be alone.

Do not forget, I love you very much.

And if you are strong enough

to make me very happy,

please try to be happy.

Daddy.

HESSE". I must now work even harder

to be strong, get well.

Yes, be happy.

Started to work.

Difficult.

But I know how important

it is now for me,

and that it almost alone

can again make me stand tall.

Finished Laocoon.

Cords everywhere.

BROWN:
She used this Word

"making it" all the time.

She was so obsessed with making it.

HESSE". Lucy wants me to do

a big piece for show.

Anything I want to do.

I'm excited.

LIPPARD:
f was doing a show called

Eccentric Abstraction.

And I thought of H in some ways as a

kind of vehicle for Eva's work.

I was looking for something

that wasn't cold, hard minimalism.

I just Wanted something else.

And I realized later

ii was something feminist or female.

I Wanted to see these hard grids

screwed up a little bit

and messed with,

and Eva was certainly doing that.

PETZINGER:
In the exhibition

Eccentric Abstraction,

Eva showed Metronomic irregularity.

And there H was a great surprise.

It was her kind of minimalism.

You have those rectangular,

ordered systems.

You have the chaos of those wires.

And this contradiction

is a very important thing in her work.

SUSSMAN:
She was able to learn

all the lessons of the minimalists,

and yet, take H into her own area,

where issues of absurdity and humor

and crudeness came in.

LIPPARD:
The show got a

certain amount of attention

and Hilton Kramer wrote about

it in the New York Tunes.

WAPNER:
When the Times reviewed it,

H gave much more space

to the men in the show

and she was pissed

and felt discriminated against.

She felt she deserved much more space

and much more attention.

And I think it was

an accurate assessment.

HESSE:
I am reading

Simone de Beauvoir's Second Sex.

I always felt that all women

were up against it.

Simone kind of agrees.

A fantastic strength

is necessary, and courage.

But we'll make H.

It was harder for women

in lots of ways,

just because of the way

the art world is structured.

Men got more encouragement

and got more support.

HOLT:
Women Weren't even seen,

so that you were invisible.

Eva was doing this extraordinary work

and being seen by a few people.

So that broke some barriers,

and I could see the cracks happening

in the male dominated system.

Her belief was simple.

I'm an artist.

And I want to be known as an artist.

Any time they tried to make her a

woman artist, she got furious.

HESSE". The way to beat

discrimination in art is by art.

Excellence has no sex.

December 23rd, 1966.

H is a fitting ending

for another strange,

bewildering, sad...

and yet strangely productive year.

A fine abandonment.

And Daddy's death.

And now, on to work and other changes.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

HESSE". January 1st, 1967.

I'm working well and eager to go on.

Might even be ready for first

one-man show by next fall.

Tonight We meet at Smithson's.

Midnight. It Will be his 28th birthday.

SMITHSON:
We became part of a certain

community that was around there.

Sol Lewitt was certainly

very central to H.

HOLT". We hung outwith

Dan Graham, Mel Bochner and

Eva and Sol, and Carl Andre.

Went to each other's studios.

People were feeling their way along,

like nothing was clear, yet.

It was all in formation.

So having conversations and exchanges,

at that moment was powerful.

What do you mean by that'?

I mean, you have to define

yourself better than that.

You just can't throw words around.

You have to really be precise.

Oh, words don't mean anything.

Words are...

Things are really

happening in New York.

This is the time of Max's

Kansas City and all these

artists were still hard drinking,

nightlife kind of people.

HESSE". We went to Max's Kansas City.

Carl, Andre and Mel had heated

discussion until closing.

DAN GRAHAM:
I think intellectually,

she was quite brilliant

and underestimated by all

her minimal art friends.

She was very, very ambitious

so she was looking at everybody's work.

Whereas the minimal artists,

were pretty self-satisfied

that they had the answer.

LEWITT:
She was very involved with

the specific medium

that she was working with.

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