Louise Nevelson
“She made sense and order and solidity out of chaos”
Louise Nevelson (nee, Leah Berliawsky) fled her native Ukraine to become the 20th century’s premier sculptor of the Abstract Expressionist movement. With her unique approach to cubism and surrealism, Nevelson translated her particular experience as a refugee, with an appreciation of materials discarded from everyday life, into groundbreaking sculptural environments.
Nevelson and her parents settled in Rockland, Maine when they arrived in the US, but her heart, from an early age, was set on New York City. She managed to find her way to New York during her marriage to Charles Nevelson, from whom she was later divorced. Her relationship with New York City was one of lifelong devotion.
Nevelson’s Chapel at Saint Peter’s Church, NYC
Best known for her wooden assemblages of discarded objects found on the streets of New York, Nevelson would use black or white paint to emphasize the interplay of light and shadow along the contours of each piece.
Gold spray paint—or in the unique case of Nevelson Chapel, gold leaf—was also used by Nevelson to accentuate certain elements, capturing light in a different way.
Atmosphere and Environment XII, University of Pennsylvania, Shoemaker Green, Philadelphia
Nevelson championed public art and she never lost sight of the depression-era WPA initiatives that provided some of her earliest artistic outlets. Although Nevelson coexisted with the rise of feminism in the 1960s and 70s, she didn’t consider herself “a feminist.” Rather, when asked about her relationship to the movement, Nevelson replied, “I am feminism.” Ultimately, Nevelson allowed the boundaries between herself, her beliefs and her art to become porous, reinventing herself with a persona that embodied and transcended a life lived on a grand scale.
“I seek truth. What I seek is anything that will work for me. I’ll use a lie if it works, and that [becomes] the truth.’”
Learn much more about Louise Nevelson by clicking through a few of these links!
Thinking Outside the Box: Louise Nevelson at Kykuit (with Deborah A. Goldberg, Ph.D.): https://youtu.be/JB6k0sGiwBc
Louise Nevelson l Bicentennial Dawn I Art for the People: https://youtu.be/lKOSiT8jbJA
Louise Nevelson speaks at the Guggenheim Museum: https://youtu.be/FK-XqusreHE
Barbaralee Diamonstein and... Louise Nevelson, 1978: https://youtu.be/BMQbY4Rxp48
American Architecture Now: Louise Nevelson, Diana MacKown, 1976: https://youtu.be/SRTLKcwE2ik
