The Sculpture of Louise Nevelson ~ at The Jewish Museum

New York City - Louise Nevelson (1899-1988) was a towering figure in postwar American art, exerting great influence with her monumental installations, innovative sculptures made of found wood objects, and celebrated public art.  She was recognized during her lifetime as one of America’s most prominent and innovative sculptors, and her work continues to inspire contemporary sculptors today.  This exhibition, the first American survey of her work since 1980, focuses on all phases of Nevelson’s career and demonstrates how her life story became a subject in her art.  On exhibition May 5 – September 16, 2007 at The Jewish Museum.

It will include 66 sculptures and works on paper as well as two room-size masterworks. After an early period of creating small-scale objects, Nevelson’s breakthrough works – environments in wood – were critically hailed in the late 1950s.  Her pioneering abstractions are frequently configured as boxed reliefs and are metaphorical narratives of personal themes.  The artist’s story – her migration to America, her initial struggle as a woman artist, and the role of modernism – forms a rich platform from which to view her compelling sculpture.  Exhibition visitors will be able to see a group of self-portraits dating from the 1940s to the 1980s; a re-creation of Dawn’s Wedding Feast (1959), the white installation Nevelson built specifically for an influential Museum of Modern Art show; and Nevelson’s culminating environment, Mrs. N’s Palace (1964-1977), a room-size, black sculpture evoking a house with a mirrored floor.  The exhibition will conclude with a video combining interviews with seven contemporary artists influenced by Nevelson with archival film footage of the artist from 1960s and 1970s.

Brooke Kamin Rapaport, a curator and writer, is guest curator of the exhibition.  Gabriel de Guzman, Curatorial Program Coordinator at The Jewish Museum, is the project coordinator.

In conjunction with the exhibition, The Jewish Museum and Yale University Press are co-publishing the most extensive study of Nevelson to be published in over twenty years.  This beautifully illustrated book focuses on all phases of the artist’s remarkable ascent to the top of the art world, from her groundbreaking works of the 1940s to complex pieces completed in the late 1980s.  In addition, it demonstrates how Nevelson’s flamboyant personal style and carefully cultivated persona enhanced her reputation as an artist of the first rank.  The 256-page book, containing 140 color and 37 black-and-white illustrations, is edited by Brooke Kamin Rapaport, who has contributed a major essay.  The book will sell for $40.00 (softcover) at The Jewish Museum and $55.00 (hardcover) at The Jewish Museum’s Cooper Shop and at bookstores everywhere.

Following its New York City showing at The Jewish Museum, the exhibition will travel to San Francisco, California where it will be on view at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young from October 27, 2007 through January 13, 2008.

The Sculpture of Louise Nevelson: Constructing a Legend is made possible by major grants from the Henry Luce Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Irving Schneider and Family.  Important support has been provided by the Lipman Family Foundation, Mildred and George Weissman, the Joseph Alexander Foundation, the Dedalus Foundation, Rita and Burton Goldberg, and other donors.  The exhibition catalogue is generously underwritten by the Homeland Foundation.

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