louise nevelson

LOUISE
NEVELSON
“I think most artists create out of despair. The very
nature of creation is not a performing glory on the
outside, it's a painful, difficult search within.”
“I think all great innovations are built on
rejections.”
HER LIFE
Born 1899 – Died 1988
Born in Russia, she
emigrated with her family
to the United States in
the early 1900s.
Nevelson learned English
at school, as she spoke
Yiddish at home.
Royal Tide II
1960
HER LIFE
Nevelson's first experience
of art was at the age of
nine at a library, where she
saw a plaster cast Joan of
Arc.
Shortly thereafter she
decided to study art, taking
drawing in high school,
where she also served as
basketball captain.
After high school she began
working as a Stenographer
at a law office.
HER ARTWORK
She utilized wooden objects
that she gathered from
urban debris piles to create
her monumental
installations
The stories embodied
within her works resulted
from her life experiences as a Jewish child relocated
to America from Russia, as
an artist training in New
York City and Germany, and
as a hard-working,
successful woman
HER ARTWORK
Nevelson purposefully
selected wooden objects
for their evocative potential
to call to mind the forms of
the city, nature, and the
celestial bodies.
While the individual pieces
had an intimate scale, they
became monumental when
viewed holistically within
the combined environment
of the assemblage.
Ancient Secrets II, 1964
The Golden Pearl, 1962
HER ROLE AS AN
ARTIST
Nevelson's sculptures
paved the way for the
dialogues of the Feminist
art movement of the
1970s by breaking the
taboo that only men's
artwork could be largescale. Her works initiated
an era in which women's
life history became
suitable subject matter
for monumental artistic
representation
Sources
http://www.biography.com/people/louise-nevelson20854319#starving-artist
http://www.theartstory.org/artist-nevelson-louise.htm
Sky cathedral, 1958