02 March 2007

Louise Nevelson



I've written elsewhere that I don't have a favorite artist. But if I were to name contenders for the title, Louise Nevelson would be on the list. She died nearly 20 years ago, so I wonder if she still counts as 'recent'. Anyway, she was known for making things like this:


She built these (sometimes massive) collages usually out of scrap wood and whatever a carpenter might have discarded. And, like the one pictured here, the final product was painted all in one color--usually black, but she also used white or the occasional gold. The gold ones look like a kind of schizophrenic altar. Anyway, the first time I saw one of these sculptures in real life was in the art museum in Mannheim. Pictures of her work aren't nearly as much fun to look at as the real thing.

There are lots of completely subjective reasons why I like her work. I like that she went monochrome. I like that she made use of found objects. I like that she put things in boxes, and I find her arrangement of those filled-boxes pleasing. I like that her work challenges what it is to be 'sculpture'.

3 comments:

Dad said...

I really like that sculpture as well and I think it would be distracting if it were not monochrome. I think I would find gold distracting.

Vatti said...

Isn't it interesting that putting things into boxes makes them look organized? It could be any kind of old junk, but it looks organized.

By the way, I really liked your new verses to "Follow the Prophet." I am reminded of what Moses said: "would God that all the LORD's people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!"

Mary Ann said...

From my reading of Moses, I have just one word: burnout. Or maybe caregiver-fatigue.