Nevelson's World

Louise Nevelson

One of the 20th century’s most acclaimed sculptors, Louise Nevelson was a pioneer of large-scale installation art. From timber, furniture fragments, and crates, she made massive wooden assemblages rooted in Abstract Expressionism, Cubism, and Constructivism. Monochromatic and typically all black (though there were departures in blue, white, and gold), Nevelson’s work established new relationships between object and viewer that transcended the representational. After studying under influential painter and teacher Hans Hofmann, Nevelson began producing her signature forms in the mid-1950s. They were quickly embraced by the art establishment; the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Brooklyn Museum each acquired one before the end of the decade. Nevelson has since been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Whitney, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Guggenheim, among other institutions. On the secondary market, her work has sold for up to seven-figure prices. Nevelson was also a prolific painter, draftswoman, and collage artist.