Untitled (DKD 12)

Eva Hesse's untitled drawing from 1967 displays the minimalist geometry that was so characteristic of her work in late 1966 and 1967, before turning to a more chaotic and emotionally suggestive style in the last two years of her brief life. Here, Hesse plays through the formal possibilities of the spiral, and was perhaps inspired by Jasper Johns' work with targets, as well as Frank Stella's black paintings of the late 1950s.
In 1966, Hesse began a series of reliefs consisting of over-painted cord spirals on masonite boards. It has been suggested that these rounded spiral reliefs go beyond mere formalism and can indeed be interpreted as breasts. It was also around this time that Hesse seemed to become obsessed with spiral, circulating forms, as evidenced in a list of possible titles for her works, all based on thesaurus entries for the category 'circular motion':
"circumnavigation/circumflexion/circuit/evolution/circumscribe/circuito us, devious/rotation, gyration, convolution/vortex, maelstrom, vertigiousness, vertigo/rotate, box the compass, gyrate/unfoldment, evolution, inversion/circle - cordon, cincture, cestus, baldic (complex circularity) convolution, involution, undulation, sinuosity/coil - labyrinth/wind, twine, twirl, entwine, undulate/meander, indent, contort/involved - labyrinthine/in and out/eccentric". (In: L. Lippard, 'Eva Hesse', New York 1976, p.56)