Hang Up 1966

Eva Hesse made this piece, ‘Hang Up,’ from painted cloth over a wood frame with a metal cable at the Art Institute of Chicago. The making of art, like life, is a process of addition and subtraction, of making and unmaking. I find that so apparent in this work. The frame is solid, wrapped, and present, but the form is also undermined by the loose cable, which makes a jaunty, almost cartoonish line as it departs the frame. It feels like the line wants to be free. Hesse's choice of materials, like cloth and metal, speaks to the push and pull between the durable and the ephemeral, the rigid and the pliant. The frame is literally hung up, but the stray cable introduces a sense of play and irresolution. I always think of the painter Philip Guston in relation to Hesse. While Hesse is more minimalist than Guston, they both share an interest in the relationship between objecthood and emotion. Both find ways to combine a serious investigation of materials with a sense of humor. They both leave room for ambiguity, inviting multiple readings without settling on a single meaning.