Louise Nevelson
b. 1899, Ukraine
Moon garden shadow, 1973-1978
Painted wood
241.3 x 157.5 x 86.40 cm
Louise Nevelson’s works are an embodiment of her spirit - indomitable, larger than life, and deeply nuanced with subtlety. Despite a career path full of hardships and strife, she continued to relentlessly create art throughout her lifetime. Moon garden shadow was completed when she was 78 years old.
In her work, Nevelson brings form to chaos, using discarded pieces of wood to create collages and large-scale assemblages. The choice of medium was both practical and artistic: not only was wood easy to source, it was also a material able to manipulate and form into the vision she desired. Though she had also experimented with using various colours in her works earlier in her practice, she eventually settled on black because it was “aristocratic” and “an acceptance” of all colours.
The darkness of Moon garden shadow belies its depth and layers of details, demanding the same level of attention that Nevelson herself gave to the creation of her sculptures.
Louise Nevelson (b. 1899, Ukraine; d. 1988, United States)
Known as one of the leading sculptors of the 20th century, Louise Nevelson’s achievements as an American sculptor were as monumental as the sculptures and assemblages she produced. She was a pioneer of installation and site-specific art, and her ability to successfully integrate her personal experiences as a woman and Jewish immigrant into her monolithic creations shattered the prevailing stereotype at the time that only male narratives could be embodied in larger-than-life pieces.
Her works have been exhibited widely at various museums including the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. She was also commissioned to produce large-scale sculptures for institutions such as Princeton University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Philadelphia Federal Courthouse.
