Why’d They Put That In A Museum?
Show Notes
Artist:Eva Hesse (American, b. Germany, 1936 – 1970)
Item: Accession II, 1969
Details: Galvanized steel and vinyl, 30 ¾ x 30 ¾ x 30 ¾ in. Detroit Institute of Arts
Accession II
Eva Hesse
If you visit the Detroit Institute of Arts, you may see an open-topped, galvanized-steel cube with a spiky, fur-like interior. Accession II, a 1969 work by Eva Hesse evokes ambivalent feelings in many people. They may have the urge to stick their hand in and touch it, while at the same time they’re repelled by the spiky interior.
How can we interpret this object? It is fragile, yet solid. Simple, yet painstakingly made with thousands of little tubes. Around the same time that Hesse created this work, artists like Richard Serra, Donald Judd, and Frank Stella were exploring minimalist art.
Is this work part of the minimalist tradition, or do its multiple meanings make it something more? And how does the life of Eva Hesse, a Holocaust survivor who died young from a brain tumor, play into her work?
00:00 Podcast Premise
00:56 Meet Eva Hesse
01:09 Accession II Described
02:09 Materials And Aging
05:03 Minimalism Context
07:18 Handmade Accumulation
09:24 Touch And Tension
11:05 Gender And Interpretation
14:08 Biography And Legacy
15:41 Contingent Explained
19:54 Presence At The Retrospective
22:14 Why In A Museum
23:48 Wrap Up And Requests
Contact Us
Say helloAbout the Podcasters
Sarah Lees
Sarah is a museum curator and researcher who has worked in organizations both large and small, and who remembers her first assignment for an art history class – to look into Rembrandt’s eyes and describe what she saw there. She believes everyone can find those kinds of connections to some form of creative expression, whether it’s a painting, a grandmother’s quilt, or a perfectly formed pen-stroke in a manuscript.
Beth Bacon
In addition to being an avid museum-goer, Beth Bacon is an author for young readers. Her books empower today’s kids to learn about themselves and the world through reading. She is also a teacher and branding consultant and a volunteer at the Missouri History Museum. Beth holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts, an MA in Communication Arts from NYU, and a BA in Literature from Harvard University.
Music Credit
The music you hear in the intro and outro was composed by Edward Whelan. We appreciate his contribution to our podcast.
Stay up to date
Stay up to date with our news