Eva Hesse valuation
German-born American sculptor who worked in latex, fibreglass and plastics, and a central figure in postminimal art.
Eva Hesse (1936–1970) was born in Hamburg, was sent to the Netherlands on one of the last Kindertransport trains as a small child, and settled with her family in New York in 1939.
What a work by Eva Hesse is worth
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Bio
Eva Hesse (1936–1970) was born in Hamburg, was sent to the Netherlands on one of the last Kindertransport trains as a small child, and settled with her family in New York in 1939. She studied at Cooper Union and at Yale, where she was taught by Josef Albers, and graduated in 1959. In the 1960s she began working in latex, fibreglass and plastics, producing sculptures such as Hang Up (1966), Addendum (1967), Contingent (1968) and Repetition Nineteen III (1968), which are held by museums including the Art Institute of Chicago, Tate and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The Guggenheim Museum held an exhibition of her work in 1972, one of many since.
Her career lasted about a decade and very little comes to market. What does is mostly drawings and works on paper, with early paintings and, rarely, sculpture. A buyer will want a clear history of ownership and will check a work against the two-volume catalogue raisonné published in 2006. Latex and some early plastics are unstable and change with age, so the condition of any sculpture needs specialist assessment. Works on paper should be checked for fading, foxing and creases.
At a glance
- Born
- 11 January 1936, Hamburg
- Died
- 29 May 1970, New York City
- Movement
- Postminimalism
Whitebank Fine Art is an art advisory and gallery, not an auction house, and is not affiliated with any auction house or with the artist, their estate or their representatives. This page describes the range we advise on. Nothing here is investment advice.
