Carmen Lydia Đurić (17 April 1936 – 9 October 2017), known by her artist name Hessie, was a Cuban textile artist who lived in France from 1962 until her death. Her creative work was mainly focused on embroidery using fabrics, although she also used the technique of collage with waste materials.
Early life and education (1936–1962)
After leaving her birthplace of Santiago, Cuba, she spent some time in New York with her two children, Yasfaro and Domingo, to work as a model, where she met Montenegrin artist Dado (né Miodrag Đurić), three years her senior, and a protégé of French artist Jean Dubuffet. Carmen and Dado fell in love and married. The couple returned together to France and set up home in a converted mill in a small village outside of Paris. and settled with him in rural Normandy in 1962. Together they raised five children.
She did not attend any art school and developed her own creative technique as early as 1956 with materials that were both affordable and easily available. Fabrics and textile cuts were materials she used from the beginning.
Hessie, "Grillage Tubino 4834", 1975–76. Set of three blue thread embroideries on unbleached cotton, 104 x 82 cm.
Active years in France (from 1962)
Embroidery constituted the major part of Hessie's practice, but her work – which has attracted renewed attention in recent years – embraces a broader scope than is at first apparent. Cuba-born but based in France since 1962, Hessie developed her signature practice from the 1970s on: seductive, rigorous compositions of abstract and geometric motifs in white or coloured cotton thread on unbleached cotton canvas.
More infrequently, her works feature stitched-on buttons, holes, or typewritten letters dispersed across the fabric support, together with collages of objects or materials on paper. Her repetitive techniques are the basis for a strict formal repertory, expressed in series of works with functional, descriptive titles: Grillages (grid forms), Bâtons pédagogiques (teaching sticks), Végétation or Machines à écrire (typewriters).
Hessie "Boutons bleus", 1974–75 Grey and blue buttons sewn on unbleached cotton, 165 x 295cm.
Hessie died in Pontoise, France on 9 October 2017 at the age of 81.
Solo shows
1975 ARC 2, Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris: «Survival Art: Hessie».
2015 Les Abattoirs, Toulouse, France: «Daniel Cordier: motifs et séries».
2015 Galerie Arnaud Lefebvre, Paris: «Artistes de la galerie».
2016 La Verrière Hermès, Brussels: «Poésie balistique».
Publications
Survival Art: Hessie ARC 2, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 12 fév-16 mars 1975
Combative Acts, Profiles and Voices – An exhibition of women artists from Paris, works by Bour, Hessie, Janicot, Maglione and collective work by Aballea, Blum, Croiset, Mimi and Yalter, Aline Dallier, New York, 1976
Hessie: Survival Art Marianne Nanne-Brahammar, Lund, 1978
Activités et réalisations de femmes dans l'art contemporain: un premier exemple: les œuvres dérivées des techniques textiles traditionnellesJacqueline Gauvreau, Aline Dallier-Popper, Thèse de doctorat, Esthétique, Paris 8, 1980.
Affinités: œuvres de la collection des Abattoirs Toulouse Musée Denys-Puech, Rodez, du 7 juin au 13 octobre 2002, préface de Laurence Imbernon, 104 pages.
Daniel Cordier: le regard d’un amateur donation Daniel Cordier dans les collections du Centre Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne: [exposition, Paris, Centre Pompidou, 14 novembre 1989–21 janvier 1990], catalogue sous la direction de Bénédicte Ajac, Nouvelle éd. Revue et corrigée, Toulouse: les Abattoirs; Paris: Centre Pompidou, 2005.
Art, féminisme, post-féminisme: un parcours de critique d'art Aline Dallier-Popper, L’Harmattan, Paris, 2009
Dictionnaire universel des créatrices sous la direction de Marie Laure Bernadac, notice de Sonia Recasens, Éditions des Femmes-Antoinette Fouque, 2013.
Cosmogonies: Hessie, Kapwani Kiwanga, Myriam Mihindou catalogue d'exposition présentée à la Galerie Arnaud Lefebvre en janvier 2015, publication dirigée par Sonia Recasens, commissaire de l'exposition
Hessie: Survival Art 1969–2015, avec les textes d’Émilie Bouvard, Philippe Cyroulnik, Yanitza Đurić, Fabienne Dumont, Nathalie Ernoult, Arnaud Lefebvre, Aurélie Noury, Diana Quinby, Sonia Recasens, Claude Schweisguth, Amarante Szidon, Anne Tronche, Sarah Wilson, Paris, Galerie Arnaud Lefebvre, 2015.