When I was teaching
art history, I guess I was a student’s worst nightmare, because on tests I
would not show them images of the works that they had seen in the book and in
class. Instead, I would give them other examples of the artist’s work. They had
to figure out whose work was on the screen by what they had seen of the
artist’s works in class. Of course, I would make it extremely easy by showing
them works that were similar to what they had seen, since I knew none of them
were committing themselves to life as an art historian (it’s not a bad thing,
really). The examples in this post would definitely not have been fair
attributions to spring on students if I wanted them to associate these works to
what they had seen of Louise Nevelson. Even in my advanced years, I am not
immune to being surprised by work that diverges from the iconic works we’ve
become accustomed to seeing (and yes, First
Personage and Hanging Column are
from the same period as the “iconic” Sky
Cathedral).
One revolution in sculpture took place in Europe in the
second decade of the 1900s when artists began to construct, not carve or model,
in three dimensions. These sculptures were composed of everyday materials, and
Surrealist artists included discarded and found objects. Although assembled
sculptures continued to be produced, in America Louise Nevelson was probably
single-handedly responsible for bringing a new significance to the genre.
Although in the 1930s Nevelson’s sculpture was initially
influenced by Cubism after she had studied under Chaim Gross (1904 \–1991),
during the 1940s she came under the sway of Surrealism. In 1943, she created
the first complete room environment in the history of American art with figures
she constructed from natural and found objects, including tree trunks. It was
at this time that she began collecting debris from the streets of New York. A
trip to Mexico in 1950 helped solidify her sculptural vision after seeing
ancient Mayan stele sculpture.
First Personage comes
from the period between 1955 and 1958 when her one-person shows met with
critical success. This was the period of her Sky Cathedral series, which is probably her most recognized type of
work. Her found object works transcend Surrealism’s precious vision, adding
monumentality and a classical air thanks to their scale.
The richly textured surfaces, such as Hanging Column (which resembles the Sky Cathedral mode) reflect the highly decorated surfaces of Mayan
sculpture. The huge scale of her work (these are both 6 feet high) was compared
by critics to Abstract Expressionism painting in that it challenged traditional
notions of what sculpture was the way action painting did painting. However,
such works also have affinity to Cubism’s multiple, overlapping planes. The
scale, when shown with the Sky Cathedral
scale works in her environments, shows an unavoidable similarity to the
skyscrapers of New York, which Nevelson admitted were an inspiration.
Correlations to Davis
programs: Explorations in Art Grade 3: 4.vocab and content review;
Explorations in Art Grade 4: 6.32, 6.35, 6.31-32 studio; Explorations in Art Grade
6: 1.4, 5.25; A Community Connection: 3.2, 8.4; A Global Pursuit: 9.2;
Beginning Sculpture: 6; Exploring Visual Design: 2, 3; The Visual Experience:
10.2; 16.7; Discovering Art History: 17.5
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