Pencil, acetone, varnish, enamel paint, ink, and cloth covered electrical wire on papier-mâché and masonite
Not on view
Hesse once described this work as reminding her of a “breast and penis.” Its title—a pun on a common nursery rhyme—highlights the relief’s wound circular forms and is also a nod to the artist’s friend, Rosalyn Goldman, who had recently become pregnant. The work is full of contrasts: Fleshly pink circles are surrounded by an unnaturally bright shade of orange, while the small scale and shallow depth of the upper form heighten the exaggerated nipple-like protrusion extending from the bottom circle. Working with “contradictions and contradictory forms” in art, Hesse said, was “my idea also in life.”
Vital Signs: Artists and the Body, November 3–February 22, 2024
Gallery label from From the Collection: 1960-69 , March 26, 2016 - March 12, 2017.
In a letter written to her close friend Sol LeWitt, Hesse described this work as looking like a "breast and a penis." She constructed these protruding forms with cloth-covered electrical wire atop a papier-mâché-treated masonite board. Though Hesse initially likened the forms to both male and female body parts, she later referred to the work as a "breast job" with one "pink nipple and one white." The title, Ringaround Arosie, puns on the popular nursery rhyme and pays tribute to Hesse's friend Rosalyn Goldman, who had recently become pregnant. This is one of fourteen relief works that Hesse, who was previously a painter, constructed during a year spent in Germany. She declared herself a sculptor upon her return to the United States.
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