Louise Nevelson: Light and Shadow

by Laurie Wilson

Overview

The most complete biography of the iconic sculptor Louise Nevelson based on hours of interviews conducted at the height of Nevelson’s fame.

In 1929, Louise Nevelson was a disappointed housewife with a young son, surrounded by New York’s vibrant artistic community but unable to fully engage with it. By 1950, she was an artist living on her own, financially dependent on her family, but she had received a glimmer of recognition from the establishment: inclusion in three group shows at the Whitney Museum of American Art. In 1980, Nevelson celebrated her second Whitney retrospective. Her work was held in public collections aroundthe world and her massive steel sculptures appeared in public spaces in seventeen states.

The story of Nevelson’s artistic, spiritual, even physical transformation (she developed a taste for outrageous outfits and false eyelashes made of mink) is inseparable from major historical and cultural shifts of the twentieth century. Art historian and psychoanalyst Laurie Wilson brings a unique perspective to Nevelson’s story, drawing on hours of interviews she conducted with Nevelson and her circle. Over one hundred images, many of them drawn from personal archives and never before published, make this the most comprehensive biography—both in terms of visuals and narrative detail—of this remarkable artist.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780500297377
Publisher:	Thames & Hudson
Publication date:	07/11/2023
Pages:	512
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Laurie Wilson is an art historian and practicing psychoanalyst on the faculty of the Psychoanalytic Association of New York affiliated with NYU School of Medicine. Her involvement with Nevelson dates back to the 1970s, when she spent fifteen hours interviewing the artist for her doctoral dissertation, Louise Nevelson: Iconography and Sources, which was subsequently published in the series Outstanding Dissertations in the Fine Arts. She has also written over a dozen chapters, articles, and essays on Nevelson.

Table of Contents

Introduction 3

1 Russian Roots 1899 - 1905 13

2 Rockland Childhood 1905 - 1918 31

3 Marriage and Motherhood 1920 - 1929 49

4 Art at Last 1929- 1934 71

5 The Beginning of Sculpture 1934- 1940 91

6 Surrealism 1940 - 1946 109

7 Death and Restoration 1946 - 1953 135

8 A Forgotten Village 1954 - 1957 159

9 Moon Garden Breakthrough 1957 - 1960 179

10 Glittering Glory 1960 - 1962 201

11 Icarus 1962 - 1963 221

12 Architect of Reflection 1964 - 1966 241

13 Empress of the Environment 1966 - 1968 261

14 Mistress of Transformation 1969 - 1971 281

15 La Signora of Spring Street 1972 - 1974 305

16 Large Scale 1975 - 1976 331

17 "The Nevelson" 1967 - 1988 349

18 The Chapel and the Palace 1977 - 1979 361

19 A Big Birthday 1980 - 1985 385

20 The End 1985 - 1988 409

Epilogue 429

Endnotes 431

Selected Bibliography 477

Acknowledgments 491

Index 493

Editorial Reviews

"A much-needed, comprehensive biography of a great American artist. Wilson, an art historian and practicing psychoanalyst, is perfectly suited to write this intimate, revealing biography of the artist she interviewed many times and considers "one of the greatest American artists of the twentieth-century.""— Kirkus Reviews

"This capacious, precisely detailed biography, the first in a quarter-century, was a long time in the making and consequently brims with diligently mined and carefully weighed revelations. Wilson’s fascinating, well-illustrated explication of Nevelson’s artistic quest reignites appreciation for the profound complexity, evocative beauty, and mystical power of her work."— Booklist (starred review)

"In this biography of Ukrainian-born American sculpture artist Louise Nevelson, famous for her work with shadow boxes and black wooden walls, Wilson, a practicing psychoanalyst who teaches at NYU, uses her professional expertise to explore the inner life and motivations of the artist and her artwork. Wilson details the artist’s eccentricities and places Nevelson’s success in the context of the 1970s, specifically the male-dominated contemporary art scene in N.Y.C. Her descriptions of Nevelson’s art are vivid, carefully observed, and insightful."— Publishers Weekly

"In Louise Nevelson: Light and Shadow, Laurie Wilson maps Nevelson's art onto [her] complicated personal history. As an art historian and psychoanalyst, the author probes into her subject's inner life, especially the conscious and unconscious themes that animate the artwork. Numerous interviews, conducted with a wide range of sources, are the book's strength. One of the revelations of Wilson's volume is how hard Nevelson worked to produce art and to have that art recognized."— Art in America

"The depth and beauty of this book is extraordinary. I lived with Louise Nevelson for almost twenty-five years and never asked questions that I thought would be intrusive. Laurie Wilson’s brilliant biography answers those questions with remarkable insight."— Diana Mackown, Nevelson's longtime assistant and friend

"Separating truth from myth, a perceptive investigation into the "larger than life" American original, Louise Nevelson. A fascinating read for someone who knew her well."— Arne Glimcher, founder of Pace Gallery

"Based on primary sources—especially unpublished interviews with the artist, her family, friends, and dealers— Laurie Wilson presents new information, adroitly separates fact from fiction, and reveals the complex personality of a much admired but little understood artist."— Valerie J. Fletcher, art historian and curator

"Laurie Wilson finds a delicate and delicious balance between art history and psychoanalysis in this authoritative, exhaustive biography. With an opulence that Nevelson herself would have admired, Wilson proclaims her subject’s genius and sculpts a permanent place for Nevelson alongside her most admired contemporary, Pablo Picasso."— Vera Camden, Professor of Psychiatry and English Literature

"Reads like a thriller with the hero, art, as savior… This compelling biography examines Nevelson’s inner life, and portrays her as an artist, woman, and complex human being. It is fascinating to read how she cultivated her image and rose to prominence in what was the macho art world of her time with her evolved and original works. Wilson’s refreshing account also includes Nevelson’s inspirational friends—many of them women—from the movers and shakers of her era. At last a major, yet inclusive, work in the genre of Art History!"— Jane McAdam Freud, sculptor

From the Publisher

2016-06-30
The life and times of abstract expressionism’s sculpture queen.“I’m just sort of a one-man circus. I call myself an architect of shadow and reflection.” This is how Louise Nevelson (1899-1988) described herself in 1971. Wilson, an art historian and practicing psychoanalyst (NYU Medical School), is perfectly suited to write this intimate, revealing biography of the artist she interviewed many times and considers “one of the greatest American artists of the twentieth-century.” The author argues it was always art and creativity that mattered to Nevelson, even at the cost of sometimes ignoring her family. She was born Leah Berliawsky in Russia and moved to Rockland, Maine, with her Jewish family when she was 5. As a child, she loved drawing, especially furniture. She married Charles Nevelson in 1920 and had a baby boy in 1922. She moved to New York City and began studying, drawing, and painting at the Art Students League in 1929 where she was mentored by a number of artists. Trips to Munich and Paris sparked her love for cubism. From 1934 to 1942 (she divorced in 1941), she began to focus on her “true artistic vocation—sculpture.” Her early works used found wood, like furniture, and she arranged bits and pieces in distinctly linear ways, some spray-painted with a single color. She experimented with plexiglass, then aluminum, then steel. In 1942, she “let loose and headed straight for Surrealism.” As her exhibits and reputation grew, so did the extravagances of her personal life. She became promiscuous, and she wore colorful clothes, exotic jewelry, crazy hats, and furry false eyelashes. She was living large, and her steel sculptures were large now, as well—imposing, massive (50 to 70 feet high), and weighing tons. Exuding a mystical quality, they “became the environment itself.” In her final years, she created inspiring, dramatic, monumental public art for cities across the country. In this occasionally revelatory narrative, Wilson continually proves her extensive knowledge of her subject. A much-needed, comprehensive biography of a great American artist.

Kirkus Reviews