Summary Of An Interview With Eva Hesse

In An Interview with Eva Hesse, Cindy Nemser posed questions to Eva Hesse over several topics spanning from influences, materials, and how her work has changed over time. During the interview, in response to Nemser’s questions, Hesse suggests multiple times how she believes that her life and her art are firmly entwined. While she takes the process of making art seriously, she values more, the examination and presentation of the “idea” she wants to create. When Nemser inquired if Hesse identified with any specific schools of painting, Hesse confessed that she felt very close to Carl Andre. She stated though, that Andre believed that an artist “can’t confuse life and art.” Hesse disagreed with that statement and admitted to Nemser that she
felt that her “inner soul art and life are inseparable.” In the creation of her art she sought to solve a problem with both an unknown factor of art and an unknown factor of life. She stated that she could not believe she could separate her idea from art that she creates. To her, they are one and the same. She felt that everything in her life dealt with contradictions and oppositions. Her life, work, and art were all interconnected through their contractions, thus becoming much more interesting than just being average and normal. Hesse seemed to relish when things did not go smoothly, she enjoyed the challenge they presented. In her works Ennead and Accession, she details how they began very neat and organized. Eventually though, they evolve into more complex forms, then fall into a form of chaos. This way of working, a reflection of her inner self, was similar to that of artists at that time such as Warhol and Duchamp. They introduced a new way of looking at life and how it interacts with the world around us.