Louise Nevelson
August 23, 1899 – April 17, 1988
Who was she?
• American sculptor known for monumental,
monochromatic, wooden wall pieces and outdoor
sculptures.
• Born in Czarist Russia, she emigrated with her
family to the United States in the early 20th
century when she was three years old.
• 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.
• Her sculptures, usually created out of wood,
appear puzzle like, with multiple intricately cut
pieces placed into wall sculptures.
• When Nevelson was developing her style, many of her
artistic colleagues – Alexander Caulder, David Smith,
Theodore Roszak – were elding metal to create their
large scale sculptures. Nevelson decided to go the
opposite direction, exploring the streets for inspiration
and finding it in wood. Nevelson's most notable
sculptures are her walls; wooden, wall-like collage
driven reliefs that consist of multiple boxes and
compartments that hold abstract shapes and found
objects; from chair legs to balusters.
“Sky Cathedral”
• The wooden pieces were also cast-off scraps,
pieces found in the streets of New York.
• Nevelson called herself "the original recylcler"
due to her extensive use of discarded objects and
credited Pablo Picasso for "giving us the cube"
that served as the groundwork for her cubiststyle sculpture.
• Nevelson took found objects and by spray
painting them she disguised them of their actual
use or meaning.
“Case with Five Balusters”
Nevelson believed that art reflected the individual, not
"masculine-feminine labels", and chose to take on her role as
an artist, not specifically a female artist.
“Sunscape”
“Dawn’s Wedding Feast” is an
installation for a whole room.
You are going to create a sculpture that uses
Louise Nevelson’s sculptures as a starting
point.
• Think of a design you want to create.
• Sketch ideas
• Gather materials that are found objects that
will ‘speak what you want’ about the
sculpture.
• Lay out your design on the wooden
framework provided.
• Glue down your pieces when you like your
design.