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.
Gallery label from From the Collection: 1960-69, March 26, 2016 - March 12, 2017.
