Louise Nevelson

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Louise Nevelson
Nevelson in 1976
Born
Leah Berliawsky

(1899-09-23)September 23, 1899
Pereiaslav, Poltava Governorate, Russian Empire
DiedApril 17, 1988(1988-04-17) (aged 88)
New York City, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
EducationArt Students League of New York
Known forSculpture
Awards

Louise Nevelson (September 23, 1899 – April 17, 1988) was an American sculptor known for her monumental,

Yiddish
at home.

By the early 1930s she was attending art classes at the Art Students League of New York, and in 1941 she had her first solo exhibition. Nevelson experimented with early conceptual art using found objects, and experimented with painting and printing before dedicating her lifework to sculpture. Usually created out of wood, her sculptures appear puzzle-like, with multiple intricately cut pieces placed into wall sculptures or independently standing pieces, often 3-D. The sculptures are typically painted in monochromatic black or white.[5]

A prominent figure in the international art scene, Nevelson participated in the 31st Venice Biennale. Her work has been included in museum and corporate collections in Europe and North America. Nevelson remains one of the most important figures in 20th-century American sculpture.

Life and artistic career

1899–1920s: Early life

Nevelson (fourth from left) posing for a class portrait with her classmates, 1913, unidentified photographer. Louise Nevelson papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

Louise Nevelson was born Leah Berliawsky in 1899 in Pereiaslav, Poltava Governorate, Russian Empire, to Minna[4][6] Sadie[7] and Isaac Berliawsky,[4] a contractor and lumber merchant.[7] Even though the family lived comfortably, Nevelson's relatives had begun to leave the Russian Empire for America in the 1880s.

The Berliawskys had to stay behind, as Isaac, the youngest brother, had to care for his parents. While still in Europe, Minna gave birth to two of Nevelson's siblings: Nathan (born 1898) and Anita (born 1902).

Kiev area. According to family lore, young Nevelson was so forlorn about her father's departure that she became mute for six months.[8]

In 1905, Minna and the children emigrated to the United States, where they joined Isaac in Rockland, Maine.[4] Isaac initially struggled to establish himself there, suffering from depression while the family settled into their new home. He worked as a woodcutter before opening a junkyard.[8] His work as a lumberjack made wood a consistent presence in the family household, a material that would figure prominently in Nevelson's work.[9] Eventually, he became a successful lumberyard owner and realtor.[7] Another child, Lillian, was born in 1906.[8] Nevelson was very close to her mother, who suffered from depression, perhaps brought on by the family's migration from Russia and their minority status as a Jewish family living in Maine. Minna overly compensated for this, dressing herself and the children up in clothing "regarded as sophisticated in the Old Country".[8] Her mother wore flamboyant outfits with heavy make-up; Nevelson described her mother's "dressing up" as "art, her pride, and her job", also describing her as someone who should have lived "in a palace".[6]

Nevelson's first experience of art was at the age of nine at the

Female figures made frequent appearances. In school, she practiced her English, her second language, as Yiddish was spoken at home.[6][8] Unhappy with her family's economic status, language differences, the religious discrimination of the community, and her school, Nevelson set her sights on moving to high school in New York.[11]

She graduated from high school in 1918,

Copley Plaza Hotel in Boston. Having satisfied her parents' hope that she would marry into a wealthy family, she and her new husband moved to New York City,[11] where she began to study painting, drawing, singing, acting and dancing.[7] She also became pregnant, and in 1922 she gave birth to her son Myron (later called Mike), who grew up to be a sculptor.[6][7] Nevelson studied art, despite the disapproval of her parents-in-law. She commented: "My husband's family was terribly refined. Within that circle you could know Beethoven, but God forbid if you were Beethoven."[11]

In 1924 the family moved to Mount Vernon, New York, a popular Jewish area of Westchester County. Nevelson was upset with the move, which removed her from city life and her artistic environment.[11] During the winter of 1932–1933 she separated from Charles, unwilling to become the socialite wife he expected her to be.[7] She never sought financial support[7] from Charles, and in 1941 the couple divorced.[4]

1930s: Study and experimentation

Starting in 1929, Nevelson studied art full-time at the

Rockefeller Plaza. The two had an affair which caused a rift between Nevelson and Rivera's wife, Frida Kahlo, an artist Nevelson greatly admired.[6] Shortly thereafter, Nevelson started taking sculpture classes at the Educational Alliance
.

Nevelson continued to experiment with other artistic mediums, including

terra-cotta semi-abstract animals and oil paintings.[13]

1940s: First exhibitions

Clown tight rope walker by Louise Nevelson, c. 1942 (John D. Schiff, photographer, Louise Nevelson papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution)

In 1941, Nevelson had her first solo exhibition at

Exhibition by 31 Women at the Art of This Century gallery in New York.[15]

In the 1940s, she began producing

modernist style in the 1950s.[16]

1950s–1960s: Mid-career

During the 1950s, Nevelson exhibited her work as often as possible. Yet despite awards and growing popularity with art critics, she continued to struggle financially. She began teaching sculpture classes in adult education programs in the Great Neck public school system.[4] Her own work began to grow to monumental size, moving beyond the human scale works of the early 1940s. Nevelson also visited Latin America and was influenced by Mayan ruins and the steles of Guatemala.[16] In 1954, Nevelson's street in Kips Bay was among those slated for demolition and redevelopment, and her increasing use of scrap materials in the years ahead drew upon on refuse left on the streets by her evicted neighbors.[17] In 1955, Nevelson joined Colette Roberts' Grand Central Modern Gallery, where she had numerous one-woman shows.

There she exhibited some of her most notable mid-century works: Bride of the Black Moon, First Personage, and the exhibit "Moon Garden + One", which showed her first wall piece, Sky Cathedral, in 1958. From 1957 to 1958, she was president of the New York Chapter of

Martha Jackson Gallery, where he worked and exhibited.[19] At Martha Jackson, she was then guaranteed income and became financially secure. That year, she was photographed and featured on the cover of Life[20]
and had her first Martha Jackson solo exhibit.

In 1960, she had her first one-woman show in Europe at Galerie Daniel Cordier in Paris. Later that year a collection of her work, grouped together as "Dawn's Wedding Feast", was included in the group show, "Sixteen Americans", at the Museum of Modern Art. In 1962, she made her first museum sale to the

Artists' Equity, serving until 1964.[4]

In 1962 she left Martha Jackson Gallery for a brief stint at the Sidney Janis Gallery. After an unsuccessful first show in which none of her work sold, Nevelson had a falling out with gallery owner Janis over sums he advanced her and was unable to recoup. Nevelson and Janis entered into a contentious legal battle that left Nevelson broke, depressed, and at risk of becoming homeless.[21] However, at this time Nevelson was offered a funded, six-week artist fellowship at Tamarind Lithography Workshop (now Tamarind Institute) in Los Angeles, which allowed her to escape the drama of New York City. She explained, "I wouldn't ordinarily have gone. I didn't care so much about the idea of prints at that time but I desperately needed to get out of town and all of my expenses were paid."[22]

At Tamarind, Nevelson made twenty-six lithographs, becoming the most productive artist to complete the fellowship up until that time. The lithographs she created were some of her most creative graphic work, using unconventional materials like cheese cloth, lace, and textiles on the lithographic stone to create interesting textural effects.

Diana MacKown. By this time, Nevelson had solidified commercial and critical success.[4]

1970s–death: Later career

Louise Nevelson and granddaughter Neith Nevelson, c. 1965

Nevelson continued to utilize wood in her sculptures, but also experimented with other materials such as aluminum, plastic and metal. Black Zag X from 1969, in the collection of the

cor-ten steel, which she described as a "blessing".[25]

She embraced the idea of her works being able to withstand climate change and the freedom in moving beyond limitations in size. These public artworks were created by the Lippincott Foundry. Nevelson's public art commissions were a monetary success, but art historian Brooke Kamin Rapaport stated that Nevelson's "intuitive gesture" is not evident in the large steel works.[25] In spite of that, Nevelson was awarded the Edward MacDowell Medal in 1969.[1][2][3]

In 1972–1973, she created her Dream Houses sculptures, of small pieces of wood assembled into house shapes and characteristically[26] painted black. The works differ from many of her pieces in being fully three-dimensional rather than presenting a single façade, though each façade is recognizable as a Nevelson work.[26]

Mrs. N's Palace (1964–1977) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2022

In 1973, the

St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Midtown Manhattan.[4] When asked about her role as a Jewish artist creating Christian-themed art, Nevelson stated that her abstract work transcended religious barriers.[24] Also in 1975, she created and installed a large wood sculpture titled Bicentennial Dawn at the new James A. Byrne United States Courthouse in Philadelphia.[27][28]

During the last half of her life, Nevelson solidified her fame and her persona by cultivating a style for her "petite yet flamboyant" self

sexually liberated lifestyle. The designer Arnold Scaasi created many of her clothes.[6]

Nevelson died on April 17, 1988.[4]

At the time of his death in 1995, her friend Willy Eisenhart was working on a book about Nevelson.[31][32]

Style and works

Approach

Lunar Landscape, 1959–1960, painted wood (Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas)
Visitors in front of Louise Nevelson's Chapel originally completed in 1977, St. Peter's Church in New York City
Louise Nevelson Plaza in Lower Manhattan with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York building in the background

When Nevelson was developing her style, many of her artistic colleagues were welding metal to create large-scale sculptures. Nevelson decided to go in the opposite direction by exploring the streets for inspiration and finding it in wood.

balusters.[33] Nevelson described these immersive sculptures as "environments".[34] The wooden pieces were also cast-off scraps, pieces found in the streets of New York.[35]

Nevelson took found objects and

Joaquín Torres García, an Uruguayan artist who "in the United States was probably underrated precisely because he was so influential; Adolph Gottlieb's and Louise Nevelson's debt to his work has never been fully acknowledged".[36]

Nevelson's limited palette of black and white, became central.[13] She spray painted[35] her walls black until 1959.[33] Nevelson stated that black "means totality. It means: contains all. It contained all color. It wasn't a negation of color. It was an acceptance. Because black encompasses all colors. Black is the most aristocratic color of all. The only aristocratic color ... I have seen things that were transformed into black that took on greatness. I don't want to use a lesser word."[6] In the 1960s, she began incorporating white and gold into her works.[33]

Nevelson said that white was the color that "summoned the early morning and emotional promise."[citation needed] She described her gold phase as the "baroque phase", inspired by her having been told as a child that America's streets were "paved with gold" and by the materialism and hedonism of the color, the Sun, and the Moon. Nevelson researched the Noh robes and the gold coin collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for inspiration.[37]

Through her work, Nevelson often explored her complicated past, factious present, and anticipated future.[35] A common symbol that appears in Nevelson's work is the bride, as seen in Bride of the Black Moon (1955). This referenced her escape from matrimony in her early life, as well as her independence throughout her life.[38] Her Sky Cathedral works often took years to create; Sky Cathedral: Night Wall, in the collection of the Columbus Museum of Art, took 13 years to build in her New York City studio. On the Sky Cathedral series, Nevelson commented: "This is the Universe, the stars, the moon – and you and I, everyone."[33]

Nevelson's work has been exhibited in many American galleries, including the Anita Shapolsky Gallery, Woodward Gallery, and Pace Gallery in New York City and the Margot Gallery in Lake Worth, Florida.[39][40][41]

Her work is included in museum collections worldwide such as

Guggenheim Museum.[47]

Public works

Further information: Louise Nevelson Plaza

Nevelson has been described as "the first woman to gain fame in the U.S. for her public art".[48] In 1978, the City of New York commissioned a sculpture garden, Louise Nevelson Plaza (formerly Legion Memorial Square), located between Maiden Lane, Liberty Street and William Street in Lower Manhattan, to showcase some of her large-scale sculptures. It became the first public space in New York City to be named after an artist.[49] Having undergone significant alterations since its inception, including a complete redesign of the plaza in 2007–2010, it is now managed by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.[7] In December 1978, Nevelson dedicated another public sculpture in the Lower Manhattan; titled Sky Gate, New York it was installed in the mezzanine lobby of 1 World Trade Center on the opposite site of Financial District.[50]

Legacy

Sky Landscape, 1988, aluminum, Washington, D.C.

Louise Nevelson constructed her sculpture much as she constructed her past: shaping each with her legendary sense of self as she created an extraordinary iconography through abstract means.

— The Jewish Museum, 2007[35]

Between 1966 and 1979, Nevelson donated her papers to numerous non-profit institutions in several instalments. Now, these are fully digitized and in the collection of the Archives of American Art.[4] The Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine houses the second largest collection of her works, including jewelry she designed.[10] In 2000, the United States Postal Service released a series of commemorative postage stamps in Nevelson's honor.[51]

The following year, friend and playwright

Washington DC's Theater J mounted a revival in November 2019.[52] Nevelson's distinct and eccentric image has been documented by many celebrated photographers.[6] Nevelson is listed on the Heritage Floor, among other famous women, in Judy Chicago's 1974–1979 masterpiece The Dinner Party.[53]

Upon Nevelson's death, her estate was worth at least $100 million. Her son Mike removed 36 sculptures from her house. Documentation showed that Nevelson had bequeathed these works (worth millions) to her friend and assistant of 25 years,

Diana MacKown.[54][55]

In 2005, Maria Nevelson, the youngest granddaughter, established the Louise Nevelson Foundation, a non-profit 501c(3). Its mission is to educate the public and celebrate the life and work of Louise Nevelson, thus furthering her legacy and place in American Art History. Maria Nevelson lectures widely on her grandmother at museums and provides research services.

Feminism and Nevelson's influence on feminist art

I'm not a feminist. I'm an artist who happens to be a woman.

— Louise Nevelson[11]

Louise Nevelson has been a fundamental key in the

masculine.[30] Nevelson believed that art reflected the individual, not "masculine-feminine labels", and chose to take on her role as an artist, not a female artist.[56] Reviews of Nevelson's works in the 1940s wrote her off as just a woman artist. A reviewer of her 1941 exhibition at Nierendorf Gallery stated: "We learned the artist is a woman in time to check our enthusiasm. Had it been otherwise, we might have hailed these sculptural expressions as by surely a great figure among moderns."[citation needed] Another review showed similar sexism: "Nevelson is a sculptor; she comes from Portland, Maine. You'll deny both these facts and you might even insist Nevelson is a man, when you see her Portraits in Paint, showing this month at the Nierendorf Gallery."[57]

Mary Beth Edelson's Some Living American Women Artists / Last Supper (1972) appropriated Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper by collaging the heads of notable women artists over each man's head, and Nevelson was among them. This image, addressing the role of religious and art-historical iconography in the subordination of women, became "one of the most iconic images of the feminist art movement".[58][59]

Even with her influence upon feminist artists, Nevelson's opinion of discrimination within the art world bordered on the belief that artists who were not gaining success based on gender suffered from a lack of confidence. When asked by

Feminist Art Journal if she suffered from sexism within the art world, Nevelson replied: "I am a woman's liberation."[60] The former president of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art said, "In Nevelson's case, she was the most ferocious artist there was. She was the most determined, the most forceful, the most difficult. She just forced her way in. And so that was one way to do it, but not all women chose to, or could take, that route."[3]

See also

References

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  21. ^ Lisle, Laurie (1990). Louise Nevelson: A Passionate Life. New York: Summit Books. pp. 236–239.
  22. ^ Glimcher, Arnold B. (1972). Louise Nevelson. New York: Praeger Publishers. pp. 12–14.
  23. ^ Johnson, Una E. (1967). Louise Nevelson: Prints and Drawings, 1953–1966. New York: Brooklyn Museum. pp. 12–13.
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  28. ISBN 0-87754-098-5. Thalacker was Director of the Art-In-Architecture Program of the U.S. General Services Administration
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  32. ^ Yarrow, Andrew L. (June 10, 1989). "Nevelson Estate Is the Focus of a Battle". The New York Times. Retrieved February 8, 2013.
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  60. JSTOR 1357977
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Sources

Library resources about
Louise Nevelson
By Louise Nevelson

Further reading

External links

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