Hang Up

Picture a large frame hanging on a gallery wall with no painting inside it. That is where this work begins. Hang Up is a sculpture by Eva Hesse, made in 1966. The frame is built of wood covered in cloth and painted with acrylic, a quick-drying paint. It stands about six feet tall and seven feet wide. Then something unexpected happens. A long loop of painted cord, stretched over a steel tube, leaves the frame and pushes out into the room. Altogether the work reaches about six and a half feet out from the wall.

Start with the frame itself. It is painted with great care, as if it were the main event, yet the space inside shows only the plain wall behind it. Next, find the place where the cord sprouts from the frame. It does not simply hang. It swings out into the room, looking graceful and a little aggressive at the same time. Finally, follow the loop down. Because it is made of industrial tubing, it gives in to gravity, and its lowest point touches the floor, almost the way a body might lean or slump.

Eva Hesse thought of Hang Up as her first significant work of art. It was the first to reach the absurdity or extreme feeling she was after. It was made in the late 1960s, when sculpture was replacing painting as the most daring kind of art. Hesse took the least important part of a painting, its frame, and made it the whole subject. The frame holds nothing, yet it grows something alive. Stand a little longer at the point where the cord meets the floor, and ask whether it looks strong, tired, or both.