With our free press under threat and federal funding for public media gone, your support matters more than ever. Help keep the LAist newsroom strong, become a monthly member or increase your support today during our fall member drive.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
Three Works Celebrate the Life and Art of Eva Hesse this Weekend
Meditations: Eva Hesse, featuring Heather L. Tyler, is at Highways Performance Space this weekend.
()
Meditations: Eva Hesse, featuring Heather L. Tyler, is at Highways Performance Space this weekend.
Eva Hesse was an artist known for both her pioneering work with materials such as plastics, fiberglass and latex, as well as her short, tragic career and life. This weekend in Los Angeles, two opening art exhibitions and a new play focus on Hesse's life and work.
Born in Germany in 1936, Hesse and her sister escaped on one of the last kindertransport trains, part of a rescue operation of Jewish children that took place in the months before the outbreak of World War II. While they were eventually reunited with their parents, this proved to be just one of the struggles that Hesse endured. Her work was not only influenced by the pain of the escape, but it was also coupled with her parents divorce, her mother's suicide when she was just 10 years old, her own failed marriage and a brain tumor, which eventually ended her life at age 34.
The play, Meditations: Eva Hesse, opens for a two-day run at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica on Friday (Sept. 24). Written by Marcie Begleiter and directed by David Watkins, the new play takes audiences through the last day of the artist’s life as she struggles to finish her final work. The production offers a psychological context to the artist’s legacy by providing glimpses of Hesse's memory.
Support for LAist comes from
In conjunction with the play, Permissions, an exhibit showcasing LA-based artists influenced by Hesse, opens at Highways Gallery on Saturday (Sept. 25). Works by contemporary artists Linda Besemer, Diana DeAugustine, Sherin Guirguis and Olga Koumoundouros will be on view. Permissions examines formally contrasting practices, encompassing sculpture, painting, and photography, that are united by Hesse's influence.
Also opening on Saturday at UCLA's Hammer Museum is Eva Hesse Spectres 1960, an exhibition of Hesse’s rarely seen paintings.
According to the Hammer:
Created when Hesse was just 24, this group of nineteen semi-representational oil paintings stands in contrast to her later minimalist structures and sculptural assemblages, yet constitutes a vital link in the progression of her work...Against a corpus of commentary which has suggested that these particular works are abject exercises of self-deprecation, Eva Hesse Spectres 1960 will examine them as testimonies to a private anxiety. This exhibition aims to further an understanding the development of Hesse’s artistic voice and contribution, as the spectre paintings demand an historical reconsideration of when Hesse became 'Hesse.'
Meditations: Eva Hesse at Highways Performance Space. 1651 18th St. @ 18th Street Arts Center, Santa Monica. Friday, Sept. 24 at 8:30 pm and Saturday, Sept. 25 at 3 pm and 8:30 pm. Tickets: $20.
Permissions at Highways Gallery. 1651 18th St. @ 18th Street Arts Center, Santa Monica. Sept. 25-Oct. 18
Eva Hesse Spectres 1960. Hammer Museum. 10899 Wilshire Blvd
., Los Angeles.
Sept. 25- Jan. 2, 2011.
At LAist, we believe in journalism without censorship and the right of a free press to speak truth to those in power. Our hard-hitting watchdog reporting on local government, climate, and the ongoing housing and homelessness crisis is trustworthy, independent and freely accessible to everyone thanks to the support of readers like you.
But the game has changed: Congress voted to eliminate funding for public media across the country. Here at LAist that means a loss of $1.7 million in our budget every year. We want to assure you that despite growing threats to free press and free speech, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust. Speaking frankly, the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news in our community.
We’re asking you to stand up for independent reporting that will not be silenced. With more individuals like you supporting this public service, we can continue to provide essential coverage for Southern Californians that you can’t find anywhere else. Become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission.
Thank you for your generous support and belief in the value of independent news.
Chip in now to fund your local journalism
(
LAist
)
Trending on LAist
-
Restaurants share resources in the food hall in West Adams as Los Angeles reckons with increasing restaurant closures. -
It will be the second national day of protest against President Donald Trump. -
The university says the compact, as the Trump administration called it, could undermine free inquiry and academic excellence. -
Metro officials said it will be able to announce an opening date “soon.” -
While working for the county, the DA’s office alleges that 13 employees fraudulently filed for unemployment, claiming to earn less than $600 a week. -
The L.A. County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted to declare immigration enforcement actions a local emergency.
Best of LAist