Louise Nevelson - Sky Cathedral
Louise Nevelson—
Sky Cathedral Presence
Survey of World Art
By
Vyacheslav Borts
The sculptress Louise Nevelson was a towering figure of American modernism. Born in 1899, she came to prominence in the late ‘50s, gaining renown for monochromatic structures built out of discarded wood. Critic Arthur C. Danto wrote, “There could be no better word for how Nevelson composed her work than bricolage—a French term that means making do with what is at hand.” (Danto 2007) Her pieces evolved and expanded in size across the latter 20th century, moving from smaller pieces to wall-sized ones, and the plays of volume therein, between light and mass, generated comparisons to numerous different movements. The following paper will examine these links by discussing Nevelson’s work, Sky Cathedral (1982), in conversation with seven others: the Stela of Mentuwoser (ca. 1955 B.C.), the Grave Stele of a Little Girl (c. 450-440 B.C.), the Imperial Procession from the Ara Pacis Augustae (13-9 B.C.), the Triumph of Dionysos and the Seasons (ca. A.D. 260-270), Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel, 1913/1951, MoMA, Mondrian’s Composition (1921), and Pollock’s One (Number 31, 1950). To set up these conversations, it is necessary to locate Nevelson’s significance. Picasso’s pioneering, early 20th century sculpture of accumulation was the foundation of Junk art—an impulse utilizing found objects. Nevelson had started assembling discarded wood in the mid ‘50s (she was then in her early 60s), and doing so linked her to many younger peers. However, Nevelson was not ideologically linked to either. Similarly, Nevelson’s monochrome reliefs invoked sacred and public tableau from centuries earlier. What is centrally different, though, is the lack of single, true perspective—her larger installations invite consideration from a variety of perspectives. To place her in a particular mode or tradition always seems to run up against these tensions. Starting with the Stela of Mentuwoser (Fig. 2),
Sky Cathedral Presence
Survey of World Art
By
Vyacheslav Borts
The sculptress Louise Nevelson was a towering figure of American modernism. Born in 1899, she came to prominence in the late ‘50s, gaining renown for monochromatic structures built out of discarded wood. Critic Arthur C. Danto wrote, “There could be no better word for how Nevelson composed her work than bricolage—a French term that means making do with what is at hand.” (Danto 2007) Her pieces evolved and expanded in size across the latter 20th century, moving from smaller pieces to wall-sized ones, and the plays of volume therein, between light and mass, generated comparisons to numerous different movements. The following paper will examine these links by discussing Nevelson’s work, Sky Cathedral (1982), in conversation with seven others: the Stela of Mentuwoser (ca. 1955 B.C.), the Grave Stele of a Little Girl (c. 450-440 B.C.), the Imperial Procession from the Ara Pacis Augustae (13-9 B.C.), the Triumph of Dionysos and the Seasons (ca. A.D. 260-270), Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel, 1913/1951, MoMA, Mondrian’s Composition (1921), and Pollock’s One (Number 31, 1950). To set up these conversations, it is necessary to locate Nevelson’s significance. Picasso’s pioneering, early 20th century sculpture of accumulation was the foundation of Junk art—an impulse utilizing found objects. Nevelson had started assembling discarded wood in the mid ‘50s (she was then in her early 60s), and doing so linked her to many younger peers. However, Nevelson was not ideologically linked to either. Similarly, Nevelson’s monochrome reliefs invoked sacred and public tableau from centuries earlier. What is centrally different, though, is the lack of single, true perspective—her larger installations invite consideration from a variety of perspectives. To place her in a particular mode or tradition always seems to run up against these tensions. Starting with the Stela of Mentuwoser (Fig. 2),
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