She was a Swedish mystic who believed angels guided her work. Why has this overlooked pioneer now been paired with Piet Mondrian, a jazz-mad Dutchman rebelling against his dad’s religion? The answer lies in the spirit world
DURING THE FIRST DECADE of Artforum, two comments appeared in its pages that have long troubled me. They occur in well-known interviews, the first with Tony Smith, published in December 1966, the second with Eva Hesse, published in May 1970, and in each case the artist associates Minimalism with Nazism. Although no explanations are given, the connections are not meant as condemnations on the contrary. So what relationships are intimated?1“Talking with Tony Smith” was occasioned by two shows curated by Samuel Wagstaff Jr., who “culled” the six-page interview “from a summer and fall” of conversations.
German-born American artist Eva Hesse (1936–1970) produced a prodigious body of work that collapsed disciplinary boundaries and forged innovative approaches to materials, forms, and processes. A traveling exhibition illustrates the important role that drawing played throughout Hesse’s career, with an accompanying catalogue hailed by the New York Times as one of its Best Art Books of 2020. On view now through June 5, 2022, at the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College in Ohio, is an .