Milestone Monday: Louise Nevelson
On this day, September 23, in 1899, artist and sculptor Louise Nevelson was born in what would later be Pereiaslav, Ukraine. Her family emigrated to the United States in 1905 and settled in Rockland, Maine. Nevelson married in 1920 and moved to New York City where she began to study art, singing, and other creative pursuits, much to the chagrin of her husband's wealthy family. She eventually came to focus on sculpture, becoming renowned for her wood collages famously painted all one colorβmost often black. Her work can be found in over 200 museums and public spaces across the world.
Nevelson also cultivated a personal style that was second-to-none, dressing herself in sumptuous fabrics and patterns accompanied by dramatic makeup. In 1971 she remarked about life in general that:
"In the end, as you get older and older, your life is your life and you are alone with it. You are alone with it, and I don't think that the outside world is needed. It doesn't have much influence on me, as an artist, or on us as individuals, because one cannot be divorced from the other. It is the total life. Mine is a total life."
The images of Nevelson and her work shown here are from a collection of booklets and prints titled Louise Nevelson Remembered: Sculpture and Collages published by the Pace Gallery in 1989.
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-- Alice, Special Collections Department Manager
