August 23, 1899– Louise Nevelson is known for her abstract expressionist “crates” grouped together to form new creations. She used found objects or everyday discarded things in her assemblages, one of which was 3 stories high. Nevelson:
“When you put together things that other people have thrown out, you’re really bringing them to life- a spiritual life that surpasses the life for which they were originally created.”
She was born Leah Berliawsky in Kiev & was raised in Maine. Nevelson knew from early childhood that she wanted to be a sculptor with wood as her medium. It took her more than 6+ decades to make her mark in the art world.
Nevelson had one unhappy marriage when she was 18 years old. The union with business man Charles Nevelson lasted for a decade, & produced one child, a son. Nevelson left her marriage in 1931 & devoted herself to her art.
She took an entire decade before her first exhibit, which was a failure. Nevelson had a second show in 1943 & sold nothing. She took the entire exhibit back to her studio & destroyed every piece. After changing direction, & after years of creating small scale pieces, Nevelson’s breakthrough came from doing large works in wood that were critically hailed by critics & public in the late 1950s.
Mrs. N’s Palace, (1977). Painted wood, mirror. Metropolitan Museum Of Art, NYC.
Nevelson infused abstract art with her personal story: the epic European Jewish migration to the USA between the 1880s & the 1920s, her life as a woman artist, & her involvement in American modernism functioned as the source of inspiration for her vast body of work. From Cubism, she took an interest in collage, fracture & abstraction. From Surrealism she got the use of dreams, the subconscious, the myths & symbols of non-Western cultures. Through Dada, she engaged with found objects, the waste of urban culture. Her fluid & jagged lines have a way of echoing the brushstrokes of Abstract Expressionism.
I have a keen interest in American 20th century art, but I know more than even a dilettante like me should about Nevelson. I had a friend in the 1980s, who wrote a one-woman show about Nevelson & I helped with most of her research, preparation & production. We no longer speak, or I would give her a plug.
Nevelson was the entrée for the USA at the Venice Biennale in 1963, but even with the attention she gathered, she was still not able to make a living from the sale of her work. She met the young artist Diana MacKown & they soon moved in together. A new period of success & a more concentrated, engaging work was the result of her happiness. About her art, Nevelson said:
“You see, I think that we have measurements in our bodies. Measurements in our eyes. We walk on 2 feet. So we’re vertical. That doesn’t mean the work has to be vertical, but it means there is a weight within ourselves, or this flight. All these things are within the being: weight, measure & color. If the work is good work, it is built on these laws & principles that we have within ourselves. So when you use a vertical line or a horizontal line, or a texture or the way the shadow falls or a thinner piece or a heavier piece, it all kind of satisfies something in the soul. I don’t like the word soul, satisfies something within the deed. You add or subtract until you feel… the form, the principle, that something that makes the house stand, that makes you stand.”
Most biographies & even Nevelson’s NY Times obituary fail to mention their 26 year relationship. After Nevelson left this world, her son & heir had a metal door installed at the apartment the women shared above their studios. He had been estranged from his mother most of his life, but Nevelson had made no provisions for MacKown in her will. MacKown was supported by friends Jasper Johns, Edward Albee, John Cage & Merce Cunningham while she put her life back together & then filed a lawsuit.
I met Nevelson once. It was at an opening of an exhibit at the Pace Gallery in the mid-1970s. She was there in her trademark scarf & gypsy garb. I was there with a contingency of friends of the actor Michael Higgins, with whom I was acquainted, & with whom Nevelson was pals. She sat in a back room & received selected visitors who came to pay her homage. The amazingly talented actor Tammy Grimes was part of our group & was next in line to pay her respects. Nevelson looked at her blankly. Grimes seemed to have blushed as she said:
“I’m Tammy Grimes, I am an actress.”
Nevelson sat still & looked puzzled, polite, but rather regal she stated:
“How nice to see you.”
Rarely intimidated, I was in the moment when it was my turn to meet & I babbled & bit. Nevelson waved me on without a comment.
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