Louise Nevelson

Louise Nevelson (1900-1988) was an American abstract sculptor who explored both the density and transparency of materials. Her imagery was based on surrealist and cubist models.

Born in Kiev, Russia, Louise Nevelson emigrated with her family to the United States in 1905. She studied painting at the Art Students League, New York City, from 1929 through 1930 and traveled to Munich in 1931 to study with Hans Hofmann. In the mid-1930s, she turned to sculpture. In 1944, a piece designed an abstract sculpture composed of wood was shown to the public for the first time. In her early work she uses traditional materials and processes, and the images are almost exclusively figures, as in Mountain Woman (1949-1950).

By the mid-1950s Nevelson had emerged as a significant force in American sculpture. She constructed free-standing and relief pieces in wood that was finished in a monochromatic hue. Black Majesty (1955) is a series of totemic events vertically projecting from a horizontal pedestal. At the same time, the presentation of her pieces became environmental in scope, and she often exhibited them under a common title or theme, for example, The Royal Voyage (1956) with jagged forms sprawled on the floor as well as mounted on pedestals, The Forest (1957), and Moon Garden plus One (1958).

Some comparisons have been made between Nevelson's work of the 1950s and concurrent attitudes in American painting, such as abstract expressionism. However, her compositions—while at first glance open-ended and freely handled in their assembled state—exhibit greater control, both formally and in their mythopoetic intent. Like some contemporary sculptors, she used cast-off materials; but her ingenious framing and pedestal devices, such as the relief, the box, and the column, in addition to her painterly concerns with light and dark, set her apart.

By the end of the 1950s Nevelson had moved from black and natural surfaces to overall white in the memorable series Dawn's Wedding Feast. The scale of this exhibition seemed to forecast her large single wall reliefs Homage to 6,000,000 I (1964) and Homage to the World (1966). She, again returned to wood painted black (triangular) in Silent Music I (1964).

In the mid-1960s Nevelson came to prefer compositions with fewer elements, more rigidly controlling the relief space. She turned to such new materials as black lucite, aluminum, and magnesium, as in Atmosphere and Environment. In Environment she achieved open, freestanding structures that are as concerned with volume as with mass. In her work of the late 1960s she used welded vertical shapes; however, she also continued to execute wood constructions.

Nevelson's artwork of the mid-1970s, she utilized cast paper in Dawn's Presence (1976). The early 1980s and mid-1980s, she worked with detailed PHSColograms in Keeping Time with Fashion (1983) and painted wood in Mirror Shadow XI (1985). Remembered for her natural abstract sculptures, her death in 1988 marked a significant loss to the world of art.

Further Reading

The most comprehensive work on Nevelson is John Gordon's, Louise Nevelson (1967), published on the occasion of the Whitney Museum retrospective exhibition of her sculpture; Louise Nevelson (1970), by Mary Hancock Buxton is valuable for the artist's later work; Louise Nevelson: Prints and Drawings, 1953-1966, by Una E. Johnson (1967); and Louise Nevelson (1969), exhibition catalog of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and College of Fine Arts, University of Texas; useful for general background is a work by the editors of Art in America, entitled The Artist in America (1967); Nevelson's updated artwork can be located in Imaging Incorporated (1995-96); Early Nevelson (1997); and Pace Editions Inc. (1976); www.Artincontext.com. □

Nevelson, Louise (1899–1988). Russian-born American sculptor, painter, and printmaker. She was born Louise Berliawsky in Kiev and in 1905 emigrated to the USA with her family, who settled in Rockland, Maine. Her father became prosperous working in lumber and property and both parents encouraged her to develop her artistic gifts. In 1920 she married a businessman, Charles Nevelson, and settled in New York. She had a son in 1922 and did not take up art seriously until she was 30, studying at the Art Students League, 1929–30, then under Hans Hofmann (first for six months in Munich, then in New York). She had left her son behind to go to Munich and after her return to the USA she separated from her husband; during the 1930s she often endured great poverty as she tried to support herself and her child. In 1932 she worked with Ben Shahn as assistant to Diego Rivera on his murals at the Rockefeller Center in New York. She started to make sculpture in 1932 and had her first one-woman show in 1941, at the Nierendorf Gallery, New York. In 1944 she started experimenting with abstract wood assemblages and in 1958 began the ‘sculptured walls’ for which she became internationally famous. These are wall-like reliefs made up of many boxes and compartments into which abstract shapes are placed together with commonplace objects such as chair legs, sections of balustrade, and other ‘found objects’ (An American Tribute to the British People, Tate Gallery, London, 1960–4). These constructions, which she painted a uniform black or (from 1959) white or gold, won her a reputation as a leader in both assemblage and environments. They have great formal elegance but also a strange ritualistic power. In the late 1960s she began to work in a greater variety of materials, including aluminium and transparent perspex, and she sometimes produced small constructions for reproduction as multiples. From the same time, with her belated fame, she began to receive commissions for large open-air sculptures, which she executed in aluminium or steel. Her work was shown in numerous individual and group exhibitions throughout the world and in old age she received a stream of honours.

Nevelson, Louise (b Kiev, 23 Sept. 1899; d New York, 17 Apr. 1988). Russian-born American sculptor, painter, and printmaker. Her family emigrated to the USA in 1905 and she settled in New York in 1920. Her serious study of art began at the Art Students League in 1929–30 and she then studied under Hans Hofmann in Munich. In 1932–3 she worked with Ben Shahn as assistant to Diego Rivera on his frescos in New York. She started to make sculpture in 1932 and in 1944 began experimenting with abstract wooden assemblages. It was towards the end of the 1950s that she began the ‘sculptured walls’ for which she became internationally famous. These are wall-like reliefs made up of many boxes and compartments into which abstract shapes are assembled together with commonplace objects such as chair legs, bits of balustrades, and other ‘found objects’ (An American Tribute to the British People, 1960–4, Tate, London). These constructions, painted a uniform black, or later in her career white or gold, won her a reputation as a leader in both assemblage and environment sculpture. They have great formal elegance, but also a strange ritualistic power. In the late 1960s she started working in a greater variety of materials and also began to receive commissions for large open-air and environmental sculptures, which she executed in aluminium or steel.

Nevelson, Louise (1899–1988). Russian-born American sculptor, painter, and printmaker. Her family emigrated to the USA in 1905 and she settled in New York in 1920. Her serious study of art began at the Art Students League in 1929–30 and she then studied under Hans Hofmann in Munich. In 1932–3 she worked with Ben Shahn as assistant to Diego Rivera on his frescos in New York. She started to make sculpture in 1932 and in 1944 began experimenting with abstract wooden assemblages. It was towards the end of the 1950s that she began the ‘sculptured walls’ for which she became internationally famous. These are wall-like reliefs made up of many boxes and compartments into which abstract shapes are assembled together with commonplace objects such as chair legs, bits of balustrades, and other ‘found objects’ (An American Tribute to the British People, 1960–4, Tate, London). These constructions, painted a uniform black, or later in her career white or gold, won her a reputation as a leader in both assemblage and environment sculpture. They have great formal elegance, but also a strange ritualistic power. In the late 1960s she started working in a greater variety of materials and also began to receive commissions for large open-air and environmental sculptures, which she executed in aluminium or steel.

Louise Nevelson 1900-1988, American sculptor, b. Kiev, Russia. Using odd pieces of wood, found objects, cast metal and other materials, Nevelson constructed huge walls or enclosed box arrangements of complex and rhythmic abstract shapes. These are covered entirely with black, white, or gold paint. The uniform tone gives her work a mysterious quality and emphasizes the structural importance of its shadows. Huge works such as World (1966; Detroit Inst. of Art) reflect a sense of total environment. Examples of Nevelson's work are in the Whitney Museum and Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Bibliography: See study by J. Gordon (1967).