Eva Hesse- German Jew relocated to America...died of brain tumor at 34...woman sculptor.
"A girl being a sculpture," By A. Chave
I think is is both curious and interesting how Eva Hesse did not consider herself a feminist but has been celebrated as a feminist idol because, "...her work effectively anticipated some feminist mandates that were formulated only after her death." These feminine mandates, as far as I can tell, have to do with using formal suggestion of feminine rather that using the "stock feminine sexuality," which consists of whores and virgins. In her journals, Hesse seems to struggle with the idea of femininity and her place as a woman in a male dominated art world. Even so, she does not fall back on any kind of Madonna trope, but invents her own language of material and form. Anne Chave says that, "Hesse wanted to make objects that were erotic and darkly humorous."
The article quotes Hesse's diary, showing that she wanted to construct, "abstract objects that produce unmistakable sensations attachable to, though not necessarily interpretable as erotic."
I am having trouble finding the feminist mandates in here. It seems to me that she was artist that happens to be woman...is that feminist? Do the feminist have claim to all women?
What was Eva Hesse doing that makes her so often associated with feminism?
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The tragic, sickly woman...
This article makes many mentions of the 'pain' in Hesse's art and the reasons for that pains existence. It explains that Hesse used her art as a weapon against that pain. Chave writes, "Rather than use her art to refuse the sociohistorically invisible position of being a woman, Hesse worked to attest to that very sense of vacancy or absence and the pain it entails" I have trouble understanding what Chave means by 'vacancy.' Is she referring to the feeling that women would have because they were often overlooked? And how does Hesse's work refuse that feeling?
Chave goes on to lump Hesse in with the tragic women artists. She is a martyr. She had to pay with her life in order to wield the phallic pen. What do you think? Is this idea now or ever valid?
The point/counterpoint readings this week provide multiple interpretations of Hesse’s work and demonstrate, in my opinion, the talent of an artist who struggled emotionally during her lifetime but, who was in command of her work and, also, the myths and stereotypes that jeopardize artists and feminists alike. Like April, I got hung up on Chave’s faulty logic which concludes in a paragraph with this quote, “It is as if martyrdom were the price demanded of women who demonstrate their creativity in defiance of patriarchal constraints and norms, as if the woman who successfully seizes and wields the phallic pen must pay with her life for assuming a male prerogative.” I checked the date of the article to see in which historic context she was writing, 1992, ouch! Chave lists Frida Kahlo, Diane Arbus, Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, and Ann Sexton, artists and writers who struggle with mental illness. Chave’s statement argues that female artists who become successful in a male dominated field inevitably die tragically because of it. She fails to mention Mary Cassatt, Berthe Morisot, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte (or any of the Bronte sisters), Anais Nin, Agatha Christi, Mary Shelley, Emily Dickenson, Georgia O’Keeffe, Agnes Martin, Lee Krasner, Helen Frankenthaler, Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo and Joan Mitchell; all women who created art and literature before and/or during the lifetime of Hesse, Kahlo, Arbus, Woolf, Plath, and Sexton. These women created work and most were recognized during their lifetimes despite the patriarchal norms of their time. Their work could be analyzed and interpreted as reflecting their emotional experiences/conditions in historical context. They all lived relatively long lives without tragic endings. She also fails to mention the male artists like Van Gogh and Mark Rothko, who died tragically due to poor health and mental illness (http://arthistory.about.com/library/artists/lists/bl_suicide.htm) I was glad to read the Wagner article for the alternate interpretation of Hesse’s work and her critical writing of Chave and Lippard. Chave and Lippard may be guilty of hanging the feminist mantle on Hesse because they were so very caught up in the context of their own feminist agenda, but also because of the power of Hesse’s work and, maybe too, because the world loves a tragedy so Hesse attracts attention and becomes an icon for their cause. Oh, the world loves a tragedy! Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, JFK, Karen Carpenter, Kurt Cobain, Heath Ledger…
ReplyDeleteHesse's work became feminist because people made it feminist. Chave quotes Hesse in saying "My work... is my strength, my energy... It draws upon all my faculties". As her work was her way out, her work was also what made such people as Lippard, and Chave call her feminist. Like April, I’m rather confused as to how her work is feminist. Why is it that any time a woman's art work centers around the female anatomy it is automatically considered feminist?
ReplyDeleteOn another note, my interpretation of the “vacancy” in Hesse’s life is the abandonment of her family. Leaving her only with her art work which she does realize is what she lives for. She grabs viewers and other artists alike with her interesting uses of “different for the time” mediums, and subjects. Her works, I think, really reflect what was going on during that time in her life. But, I don’t think Hesse is a martyr. That statement comes off a little over-dramatic to me… However that’s another way to identify her as a feminist to some. Circling back to the original question, how is Hesse a feminist? And why are all “tragic women” lumped together into one category?
The quotes from Hesse in Chave's article and the other readings clearly show that the artist was somewhat interested in issues that would later become feminism. When I was an undergraduate, UArts had a strong fibers department and Hesse was understood to be one of, if not the, primary founders of that discipline. Most of the fibers students were female and the occasional male fibers artist had an easier time of it because, I guess, they were/are a little out of the ordinary. But the entire discipline was taught in a formalist way and Hesse's gender was rarely addressed except for an implied understanding that fibers is somehow a more feminine art form. Possibly this is due to the material used and the fact that the works are often "pretty."
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to come to any objective conclusion about Hesse's motivations. The scholars who wrote this weeks readings are obviously trying to make a certain point and they have selected information to support it. Certainly Hesse's art is complicated and her motivations must even be more so. Now I am trying to find a Germanness, or specifically a Jewish-Germanness in her work. Also mental illness and a reflection of physical pain.
Despite Hesse's outsider status as a woman artist in the 1960s she did seem to pal around with many of the major artists of the day. Hesse was canonized by by art history immediately after her death. This could be a justification for calling her a martyr. If she had lived longer would she have risen to the same level of importance in the art world?
Since when has the 'protestant death narrative' been a feminist trope? Again with the misunderstood victim? Painful. do we get to talk about ana mendieta next week? Her success got her thrown out of a window. Apparently, according to Chave article that's what happens when female artists try to wield the 'phallic pen.'
ReplyDeleteFrankly, I find this sort of apologetic analysis of an artist’s personal history offensive. We have a saying in the fine art program, “just because there are personal motivations behind why the work was created doesn’t necessarily mean those motivations are what the work is about.” To reduce the work of Eva Hesse to the ‘hysterical’ purging of a ‘troubled’ woman does great damage to the sophistication of the work. There are some brilliant visual metaphors at play in Hesse’s work. It would be a breath of fresh air the read an art historical analysis that actually focused on the ‘art’ part of art history.
This is a bit of info I found about the nazi lamp...Shortly after U.S. troops liberated Buchenwald in 1945, director Billy Wilder made a documentary about the camp to publicize Nazi atrocities. A widely circulated still photo from the film showed a table covered with preserved human remains, including two shrunken heads; several pieces of what appears to be tattooed skin; and an ordinary-looking table lamp. The film's narration says that among the items found was "a lampshade, made of human skin, made at the request of an SS officer's wife (Ilse Koch)." The press went nuts, and soon the lampshade became emblematic of Nazi barbarism. There were pictures too...
ReplyDeleteBut-- I also found the sites that said it was a rumor and now am a bit confused on who to believe...