"Weird Nonsense" Humor and Trauma in the Work of Eva Hesse
Eve Adsetts
Art Market Studies
About this Item
- Title
- "Weird Nonsense" Humor and Trauma in the Work of Eva Hesse
- Contributor Names
-
Adsetts, Eve (Author)
-
Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York. Art Market Studies (Degree granting institution)
-
Schwartz, Alexandra (Thesis advisor)
-
Degen, Natasha (Thesis advisor)
- Date
- 2022
- Degree Information
- M.A. Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York 2022.
- Department: Art Market Studies.
- Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 84-08.
- Advisors: Schwartz, Alexandra; Degen, Natasha.
- Abstract
- Eva Hesse was always in on the joke. She was fascinated by the absurd. After fleeing Nazi persecution as a young child, she lived a life of extremes. In an effort to deal with her trauma, Hesse combined her artistic talent and survivor humor to create a unique style of sculpture that influenced generations. Scholarship on Eva Hesse paints her as a tragic and wounded feminist figure or a traumatized genius lost too soon. Instead, this paper presents Eva Hesse as a survivor, and her work as a humorous tool. As Hesse managed her trauma through her art and therapy, her art became funny and crude, a stark contrast from the dark abstract paintings and drawings of the beginning of her career. Through an exploration of "Holocaust humor," this paper analyzes the work of Eva Hesse as it acts like a Holocaust joke.
- Subject
- Art
- History
- Art criticism
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in art
- Artists
- Hesse, Eva, 1936-1970
- Humor
- Traumatism
- Rights
- In Copyright
- The copyright for this work is held by its author/creator(s). Usage of this material beyond what is permitted by copyright law must first be cleared with the rights-holder(s). This work has been made available online by the Fashion Institute of Technology Gladys Marcus Library strictly for research and educational purposes. If you are the copyright holder for this work and have any objections to this work being made available online, please notify us immediately at [email protected].
- This item must not be sold to any third party vendors.
- Identifier
- FIT Repository ID: etd_000906
- pqdiss: 29256239
- ISBN: 9798371972095
- Language
- English
- Publisher
- Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations & Theses,
Citation
Adsetts, E. (2022). "Weird Nonsense" Humor and Trauma in the Work of Eva Hesse [Master's thesis, Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York]. FIT Institutional Repository. https://institutionalrepository.fitnyc.edu/item/28866
Adsetts, Eve. "Weird Nonsense" Humor and Trauma in the Work of Eva Hesse. 2022. Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York, Master's thesis. FIT Digital Repository, https://institutionalrepository.fitnyc.edu/item/28866
Adsetts, Eve. ""Weird Nonsense" Humor and Trauma in the Work of Eva Hesse." Master's thesis, Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York, 2022. https://institutionalrepository.fitnyc.edu/item/28866