In 1966, the groundbreaking exhibition Eccentric Abstraction, held at the Fischbach Gallery, New York, launched the career of Louise Bourgeois, Eva Hesse and Alice Adams. It would profoundly shape the language and legacy of post-war American sculpture. This book returns us to this pivotal moment and, in bringing together these three important artists for the first time since 1966, explores the emergence of a new form of ‘abstract erotic’ sculpture.
Abstract Erotic highlights the erotic and playful aspects of the sculpture of Bourgeois, Hesse and Adams, foregrounding their shared commitment to using abstract form to ask important questions about fluid sexuality, bodies and humour. It brings together a series of internationally recognised scholars of these three artists, presenting new insights into their practice, and its wider relevance to the art of the 1960s until now. And by putting the work of Alice Adams in conversation with the work of established figures Bourgeois and Hesse, it aims to bring her work to the attention of a wider public.
Abstract Erotic: Louise Bourgeois, Eva Hesse and Alice Adams
Edited by Jo Applin
With contributions by with Julia Bryan-Wilson, Briony Fer, Lucy R. Lippard and Mignon Nixon
ISBN 978-1-913645-80-9
Paperback, 120 pages
260 x 216, 80 illustrationsJo Applin, Walter H. Annenberg Professor in the History of Art, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London. Her books include Eccentric Objects: Rethinking Sculpture in 1960s America (Yale University Press, 2012), Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Mirror Room: Phalli’s Field (Afterall, 2012), and Lee Lozano: Not Working (Yale University Press, 2018)
Exhibition
The Courtauld Gallery, London
20 Jun – 14 Sept 2025In the press
★★★★★ "Abstract Erotic is obscene, grotesque - and unmissable"—The i Paper
"... a reminder that art can still offer us something the digital realm cannot. In the tactility and erotic curiosity of Bourgeois, Hesse and Adams’ work is the chance to reconnect with the body, in all its glorious fallibility and carnality."—The Financial Times
★★★★ "artworks as beguiling as they are compelling"—The Guardian
"jubilant and exhilarating... Here are three women having a wild time with lowly materials... conjuring witty and outlandish forms"—The Observer
"sensuous, funny and subversive"—The Arts Desk
"... the response these sculptures summon might sit in that strange place between curious arousal and repulsion, but they are very tempting to touch indeed."—Wallpaper