No title 1957 - 1958

This is an etching by Eva Hesse. Look at the stark contrast of the black ink against the white paper. It's all about bold moves, isn’t it? I imagine Hesse working on the plate, pushing and pulling, trying to find a way to make marks that felt real. I see her scraping into the metal, making these wild lines and shapes emerge. There’s a physicality to it. The surface has a bite, a real texture you can almost feel with your fingers. Hesse’s known for her sculptures, these weird and wonderful objects that bend and droop. And, in this print, you can see that same sensibility. The way the forms push and pull against each other, creating a sense of tension and release. You see echoes of Gorky and de Kooning in there, for sure. We are all standing on each other's shoulders after all. We painters are always in conversation, picking up where others left off, trying to push things further. It’s an ongoing experiment, you know? There’s no right or wrong, just endless possibilities.