Skip to Content
Today Open today 10–11 members | 11–5 public

Untitled

Abstract painting with an orange mass in the center surrounded by green and pink tones, painted in wide brushstrokes.
© The Estate of Eva Hesse, Courtesy Hauser & Wirth.

Image actions

  • Abstract painting with an orange mass in the center surrounded by green and pink tones, painted in wide brushstrokes.

Date:

1960

Artist:

Eva Hesse
American, born Germany, 1936–1970

About this artwork

Trained as a painter, by the late 1960s Eva Hesse had become widely known for influential experiments in Post-Minimalist sculpture—a mode of abstract art making that emphasized process and a kind of bodily irregularity or eccentricity. Hesse created Untitled when she was only 24, and as such it represents a key early work in her career.

This vivid canvas, with its active, gestural strokes, marks Hesse’s emergence at a moment when Abstract Expressionist painting was still dominant. Around this time she was painting abstracted portraits, and the central orange shape here almost appears like a head in profile. Above all, however, the work’s insistent, dripping slashes of paint and its idiosyncratic palette indicate an artist already guided by an interest in materiality, intimacy, and absurdity.

Status

On View, Gallery 291

Department

Contemporary Art

Artist

Eva Hesse

Title

Untitled

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1960

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

91.4 × 91.4 cm (36 × 36 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Helen Charash

Reference Number

1989.534

Copyright

© The Estate of Eva Hesse, Courtesy Hauser & Wirth.

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

Share

Sign up for our enewsletter to receive updates.

Learn more

Image actions

Share