Roughly a generation separates Hesse’s later work from the production of Pratt and Townsend. The latter suggests that artists continue to rethink and re-use post minimal idioms via subsequent developments in feminist critical theory and art practice. Contingent placed the work of two contemporary Canadian women in the context of American postminimal art making of the 1960s and 70s. The Gallery was honoured to be able to present several small sculptures by Eva Hesse, which are ordinarily very difficult to borrow.
A public panel discussion including curator Ingrid Jenkner, the artists and a representative of the Eva Hesse Estate, New York, introduced the unexpectedly contested issue of feminism in abstract art practice.
