Beginning August 27, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art will present a stunning new exhibition on sculptor Louis Nevelson, whose works featuring discarded bits of wood furniture and other material have captivated audiences for nearly a century. Her work—which will certainly speak to generations of people who have embraced craft, DIY or recycling—has been seen around the world, and it still inspires dialog about the environment, postmodern anxieties about material wealth, sexism in the art world and the subversion of industrialization.
Louise Nevelson (1899-1988), Royal Tide I, 1960. Painted wood. Peter and Beverly Lipman. Photo courtesy Storm King Art Center by Jerry L. Thompson, © 2022 Estate of Louise Nevelson / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
The World Outside: Louise Nevelson at Midcentury is the first major exhibition devoted to the artist since a 2007 exhibition that originated at New York’s Jewish Museum and traveled to the de Young in San Francisco. “The Jewish Museum and de Young did a retrospective, and they put the installations up as she originally conceived them—it was brilliant,” says Shirley Reece-Hughes, curator of paintings, sculpture and works on paper at the Carter. “But in this exhibition, I wanted to drill down into her experiences that hadn’t been explored before, particularly her 20-year interest in modern dance, and some of the other fascinating details about her, like how she collected American folk art and how radically experimental her work was.”
Louise Nevelson (1899-1988), Column from Dawn’s Wedding Feast, 1959. Wood and paint. The Menil Collection, Houston, 1978-159.2E, © 2022 Estate of Louise Nevelson / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Reece-Hughes adds that Nevelson doesn’t get enough credit for pioneering site-specific installations and hopes that can continue to be corrected with this body of work. The exhibition will feature 64 objects, including 32 sculptures. In addition to her free-standing wood pieces, there will also be wall-mounted pieces filled with wooden spools, chess pieces and other material; as well as her lesser-seen Tamarind lithographs and works that show her embrace of Plexiglass after its development in the early 20th century. Many of the works, including several key pieces from her career, have never been shown together before.
Louise Nevelson (1899-1988), Case with Five Balusters, 1959. Wood and paint. Collection Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Peter M. Butler, 1983, 1983.214, © 2022 Estate of Louise Nevelson / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Louise Nevelson (1899-1988), Lunar Landscape, 1959-60. Painted wood. Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas. Purchase with funds from the Ruth Carter Stevenson Acquisitions Endowment, 1999.3.A-J.
The curator thinks visitors will be fascinated by Nevelson’s story, which starts in what is present-day Ukraine, from where her Jewish family left in the early years of the 20th century. When they arrived in Maine, Nevelson’s father would peddle scrap metal and other objects. Later experiences during World War I, the Great Depression and World War II—periods when certain materials were scarce, expensive or rationed—helped inform Nevelson’s fascination with cast-aside material that could be found in the world. “She was pulling wooden debris from piles in New York City,” the curator says. By the time the 1950s had rolled around, Nevelson had new concerns. “It was in that backdrop, with the postwar anxiety all around because of the atomic bomb and radiation, she really started looking at the world outside, the natural world.”
Louise Nevelson (1899-1988), Night-Focus-Dawn, 1969. Painted wood. Whitney Museum of American Art. Purchase with funds from Howard and Jean Lipman, 69.73a-y, © 2022 Estate of Louise Nevelson / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, digital image © Whitney Museum of American Art / Licensed by Scala / Art Resource, NY.
Lewis Brown, Louise Nevelson’s hands at work, ca. 1964-75. Louise Nevelson papers, ca. 1903-1982. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
At the same time, Nevelson’s work was dismissed by some artists and critics because it was created by a woman. Reece-Hughes points to a LIFE magazine article from 1958 (Headline: “Weird Woodwork of Lunar World”) where Nevelson is portrayed as a recluse and hermit. “She has generated so much fascination from that perspective as a hermit. I just can’t fathom what she endured as a woman, particularly in sculpture, when it was primarily done by men. And yet she was confident in her vision and putting it forward in the world,” the curator says. “There is a recorded interview with Lee Krasner, in which she talks about a backhanded compliment she received from Hans Hofmann. You hear about that era and it’s extraordinary that she emerged successful, although she did struggle, like many women artists from the time.”
Louise Nevelson (1899-1988), Untitled, 1958. Paint and wood. Asheville Art Museum, gift of Hans & Patty Schleicher. Image John Schweikert, 2002.22.32, © 2022 Estate of Louise Nevelson / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, image John Schweikert.
Impact Photos Inc., Louise Nevelson standing in front of her artwork at Pocantico Hills, 1969. Louise Nevelson papers, ca. 1903-1982. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Works in the exhibition include the famous Lunar Landscape wood piece, several painted plaster works and numerous lithographs—all of these and more come from the Amon Carter collection. Other works include the spindle-like, all-white Column from Dawn’s Wedding Feast; the ominous black wall of Night-Focus-Dawn, made of 24 boxes filled with fang-like wooden forms; and the spectacularly golden Royal Tide 1, an 18-box arrangement with a mesmerizing array of shapes and patterns.
The World Outside will remain on view in Fort Worth, Texas, through January 7, 2024. The Amon Carter is also publishing a catalog that will have significant new scholarship on Nevelson, her career and her fascinating work.
Powered by Froala Editor
