Converging Lines Eva Hesse And Sol Lewitt Analysis

There is no doubt that Eva Hesse and Sol Lewitt were close friends, and both arguably two of the most significant American artists of the Abstract Expressionism movement during the post-war war era. Throughout the exhibition, “Converging Lines: Eva Hesse and Sol LeWitt”, the viewer and explore the friendship in depth through each of the many pieces. Born into a German-Jewish family, and together they fled to the United States during the rise of Nazi power. It is in New York where she would start her artistic training, taking influence from her childhood idol, William de Kooning. Hesse aimed to paint in the way of an Abstract Expressionist, with intense coloring and heavy palate knife strokes, giving up here academically trained figure sketches

It can be argued that although they supported each other’s work, they were opposites. Lewitt focusing more on geometric forms, lines, and grids, with the purpose to push the Conceptual Art movement, where as Hesse always made the artist’s hand evident. She is also known for using unconventional objects, and having erotic and irregular themes. The juxtaposition of LeWitt’s airy, light, very grid like, piece 3x3x3 sits next to Hesse’s Accession V, a dense, dark topless cube. 3x3x3 stands three seamless cubes wide, high, and deep. It is made out of white wood and has a skeletal, bone like feel, while abiding by a strict geometric guide. Accession V on the other hand is a three-sided steel cube with rubber tubes threaded throughout holes drilled along the sides. The rubber tubes are meant to look fleshy, and organic, interrupting such a mechanical steel object. A mechanical object that artists like LeWitt would strive to create

At first glance, I honestly did not see the connection, or understand the connection. I saw that similarities between LeWitt’s brightly colored Run Series and Hesse’s No Title, 1963 and No Title, 1964, but that was all. The letter written to Hesse from LeWitt was ineradicably touching, and helped with the initial confusion. The second room is where the pieces Accession V and 3x3x3 were located. Before reading about them after the fact, I looked at them and wondered the meaning. From previous knowledge I knew LeWitt worked with a grid, and the Hesse had an almost torturous feel to her work, and sub consciously I made the connection that they were supposed to be compared, but in the moment the connection was not