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MFAH Film New Releases: Eva Hesse

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MFAH Film New Releases: Eva Hesse

When
June 24, 2016
Where
Museum of Fine Arts Houston – Brown Auditorium
1001 Bissonnet Street
Houston,TX 77006
Cost
$2 - $1001
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Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presents another in its New Releases series. Enjoy these critically acclaimed, award-winning international films as they make their Houston debut!

Eva Hesse

Directed by Marcie Begleiter
2016, USA/Germany
108 minutes, DCP

Saturday’s screening introduced by Linda Shearer, art historian.

The talented artist Eva Hesse (1936–1970) tragically died of a brain tumor at age 34. Her pioneering sculptures using latex, fiberglass, and plastics helped establish the post-minimalist movement.

This new documentary traces her life through journals, her correspondence with mentor Sol LeWitt, and interviews with family members and fellow artists. A celebration of her achievements, the film also addresses the challenges faced by women artists in the years preceding the feminist movement.

“My involvement with Eva Hesse and her work began in the early 70s, soon after her death in 1970. I was a curatorial assistant at the Guggenheim Museum, 24 years old. I did not know Eva, but knew and loved her work; I was invited to do a show for the gallery at the School of Visual Arts and immediately jumped on the idea of a small exhibition of her work. At that point, the majority of her  work was owned by her gallery, and I was friends with her dealer Donald Droll., and therefore had access to her estate, etc.

That led to my proposing a retrospective of her work at the Guggenheim, which was realized in 1972. It was my first exhibition (and museum catalogue/essay) and I was mentored by curator Diane Waldman. It was also the first museum exhibition of her work. As a result I interviewed and got to know all her friends and family — Sol Lewitt, Mel Bochner, Lucy Lippard, her sister Helen, etc.

The show received excellent reviews and traveled to the MCA in Chicago and the Pasadena Museum (where Bill Agee was director). It launched my career and became for me the measure for everything else I have done professionally.” – Linda Shearer

About the speaker: Currently the Interim Executive Director for the Houston Center for Photography, Linda Shearer was appointed the Executive Director of Houston’s Project Row Houses in September 2009, Linda Shearer has been working in museums in the United States for nearly 40 years, and her focus has been on contemporary art. She arrived in Houston in 2007 to serve as interim director at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH). Prior to coming to Houston, she served as director of the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, and from 1989 to 2004, at the Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts. She retired from Project Row Houses in 2015.

After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, New York, she worked at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum for 11 years before becoming director in 1980 at one of the earliest alternative spaces in the country — Artists Space, also in New York. She served as curator in the Painting and Sculpture Department at the Museum of Modern Art in New York from 1985 to 1989 and was responsible for the Projects series there.

A native of Long Island, New York, she also attended graduate school at New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts. She has taught contemporary art history at the School of Visual Arts in New York, and at Williams College. She has participated in many panel discussions, juries, government consultancies and lecture series, and served on numerous boards, including the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) and the American Federation of Arts (AFA), as well as on the advisory committee for the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). She is currently on the advisory committee for the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and serves on the Exhibition Committee of Independent Curators International (iCI).

Community partner: The Menil Collection.

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/evahessedoc

The Montrose Management District
board workshop meeting scheduled for April 3
has been postponed indefinitely.