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.
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 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 ». 1976 Galerie Marcel Billot, Paris : « Hessie ». 1978 Konsthall, Lund (Suède) : « Hessie / Survival Art ». 2015 Galerie Arnaud Lefebvre, Paris : « Hessie : Survival Art 1969–2015 ». 2015 FIACOFFICIELLE, Paris : « Hessie : Survival Art 1969–2015 ». 2016 Galerie Arnaud Lefebvre, Paris : « Hessie : Collages & Papiers ». 2016 ART BRUSSELS, Brussels. 2016 La BF15, Lyon, France : « Hessie : Silence ». 2016 Galerie Arnaud Lefebvre, Paris : « Survival Art 2016 ». 2016 La Verrière Hermès, Brussels : « Soft résistance ». 2016 FIAC Grand Palais, Paris. 2017-2018 Les Abattoir, Toulouse: "Hessie, Survival Art"