Jewish-American sculptor Eva Hesse is the subject of this third book of poetry by prize winning poet and novelist Harriet Levin. These poems bring Hesse to life at a particular point in Hesse’s life — her early marriage to a more successful artist, which ended in divorce. The book explores questions such as, who has the right to make art? and whose art gets recognition?
Hesse escaped Nazi Germany on the kindertransport at the age of five. She faced sexism in the 1960’s male dominated art world. She died from brain cancer at age 34 at the height of her career, purportedly from inhaling the plastic polymers she used to make her art. Blending poetry with memoir, these poems forge a literary bond between two Jewish artists confronting the artistic process, marriage, and traumatic loss.
