EVA HESSE, SOL LEWITT
CONVERGING
LINES
Blanton Museum of Art
The University of Texas at Austin
200 East
MLK - Austin
Converging Lines: Eva Hesse and Sol LeWitt, on view at the
Blanton Museum of Art February 23–May 18, 2014, celebrates the close friendship
between two of the most significant American artists of the post-war era: Eva
Hesse (1936–1970) and Sol LeWitt (1928–2007). Organized by Veronica Roberts, the
Blanton’s curator of modern and contemporary art, the exhibition will feature
approximately 50 works, including many that have not been publicly exhibited for
decades.
While their practices diverged in innumerable, seemingly
antithetical ways—LeWitt’s work is associated with ideas and system-based
conceptual art and Hesse’s is associated with the body and her own hand—this
presentation will illuminate the crucial impact of their friendship on both
their art and lives. A scholarly catalogue published in association with Yale
University Press accompanies the exhibition and includes essays by Roberts, Lucy
Lippard, and others.
“It is a privilege for the Blanton to present this
exhibition which highlights one of the most fascinating and important artistic
friendships of the 20th century," remarked Blanton director Simone Wicha. “This
presentation will shed new light on Eva Hesse and Sol LeWitt and provide a
deeper understanding of their impact on one another, while capturing the vibrant
nature of the artistic dialogues and collaborations that took root in New York
City during the 1960s.”
Robert Slutzky, a distinguished former architecture
professor at the University of Texas at Austin, first introduced Hesse and
LeWitt in New York in the late 1950s. They, and other artists including Robert
Mangold, Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Robert Ryman and art critic Lucy Lippard, all
lived within close proximity of one another on the Bowery and supported each
other in significant ways. In a 1993 interview, LeWitt noted, “The discussions
at that time were involved with new ways of making art, trying to invent the
process, to regain basics, to be as objective as possible.” * A map pinpointing
the locations of dozens of artists’, composers’, and dancers’ studios will be on
display in the exhibition, underscoring the dynamic environment of Lower
Manhattan in the 1960s.
In spite of the dramatic differences between their
artistic processes, Hesse and LeWitt nevertheless developed a close bond,
evident in the extensive correspondence that ensued over the course of their
more than decade-long friendship. In 1965, while Hesse was in Germany for a
15-month residency, LeWitt sent her an extraordinary 5-page letter in which he
famously urged, “Just stop thinking, worrying, looking over your shoulder
wondering, doubting, fearing, hurting, hoping for some easy way out, struggling,
grasping, confusing, itching, scratching, mumbling, bumbling, grumbling,
humbling, stumbling, numbling, rumbling, gambling, tumbling, scumbling,
scrambling, hitching, hatching, bitching, moaning, groaning, honing, boning,
horse-shitting, hair-splitting, nit-picking, piss-trickling, nose sticking,
ass-gouging, eyeball-poking, finger-pointing, alleyway-sneaking, long waiting,
small stepping, evil-eyeing, back-scratching, searching, perching, besmirching,
grinding, grinding, grinding away at yourself. Stop it and just DO!” This
letter, and postcards from LeWitt to Lucy Lippard, will be on display in the
exhibition. The accompanying catalogue also reproduces dozens of postcards from
LeWitt’s extensive correspondence with Hesse, illuminating the affectionate, and
often humorous nature of their friendship.
In 1970, immediately upon
learning of Hesse’s premature death from a brain tumor at the age of 34, LeWitt
created Wall Drawing #46 for an exhibition of his work in Paris. The work
consists of a wall covered with “not straight” pencil lines that LeWitt drew as
a way of paying homage to the organic contours that were a hallmark of Hesse’s
art. This landmark work will be one of five wall drawings in the exhibition. All
will be installed by artists who worked closely with LeWitt during his lifetime,
with assistance from students at the University of Texas, in keeping with
LeWitt’s longstanding interest in having students help create his work. More
than an isolated gesture of affection, Wall Drawing #46 demonstrates how Hesse’s
artistic influence shaped LeWitt’s practice in indelible ways.
Numerous
works in the exhibition also illustrate the reverse: LeWitt’s impact on Hesse’s
work. Accession V, a galvanized steel and rubber sculpture, responds to LeWitt
in its use of the cube (a quintessential LeWittian and Minimalist form); the
sculpture also marks one of Hesse’s first attempts at working with outside
fabricators, a practice commonly used by LeWitt at the time. The artists’
artistic dialogue is also evident in a striking 1969 Hesse drawing with gouache,
silver paint and pencil that features stacked horizontal lines. With its silvery
palette and grid-like composition, this untitled work, which has not been
publicly exhibited for 30 years, hints at LeWitt’s influence on Hesse’s
evolution as an artist.
Other highlights include several important early
LeWitt sculptures (or structures, to use his preferred term) that have not been
displayed in 50 years, a 1969 Hesse drawing from the collection of Agnes Gund,
and several Hesse sculptures and drawings from the LeWitt Collection, The Museum
of Fine Arts Houston, and the Yale University Art Gallery.
The accompanying
exhibition catalogue will feature an interview with LeWitt on Hesse, published
here for the first time in its entirety, and a richly-illustrated chronology
featuring recollections by the artists about their childhoods, early jobs, and
highlights of their artistic careers, all drawn from interviews and oral
histories with the artists and their wider circle.
An exciting roster of
public programs will complement the exhibition. Art critic and writer Lucy
Lippard will share personal recollections of her friendships with Hesse and
LeWitt. Pulitzer Prize-winning Boston Globe journalist Sebastian Smee will
discuss famous artistic friendships of the 20th century. Filmmakers Marcie
Biegleter and Karen Shapiro will discuss Tracing the Rope: Eva Hesse Life +
Work, the first documentary ever dedicated to the artist and will provide a
sneak peek at some of the film’s highlights. Curator Veronica Roberts will
present some of the unexpected discoveries of her research for this exhibition,
and talk about the ways that curatorial research often mirrors detective work.
