I have this book and I love it. You are given a glimpse of the New York art scene in the 1960's and get a feeling of what it must have been like during that exciting period. In fact, it's a little scary to imagine being around during that time, kind of overwhelming. Conceptual art, pop art, Andy Warhol, the whole psychedelic hippie scene. But oddly still a man's world, for all the miniskirts and 'free love' hype. Her contemporaries were pretty much all men, and the women tended to be more like sidekicks and dilettantes. (Not to take anything away from male artists, that's just the way it was at the time.) The end of Eva's marriage, to another artist, seems almost a given once she really started to come into her own right. It must have been kind of lonely, men were probably threatened by the idea of a female artist, or maybe it was just that she didn't have time to find the right person in her short life. Also, at the time there was much less awareness of toxicity in art materials both traditional and non-traditional. I have to admit I'm fascinated by the romance of this heroic figure producing art despite the cost to her personal life and health. I don't see her as a martyr but as a brave pioneer who left us with beautiful art. Many of Eva Hess's sculptures were made using ephemeral materials but this book has pictures of them when they were new. Even if the actual sculptures don't survive, the image of them will somehow continue to survive, maybe with the help of virutal reality technology? Anyway, thank you Lucy Lippard for this informative book packed with pictures and info about Eva!
