The Sculpture of Louise Nevelson: Constructing a Legend Book

Louise Nevelson (1900–1988) was a towering figure in postwar American art, exerting great influence with her monumental installations, innovative sculptures made of found objects, and celebrated public artworks. The Sculpture of Louise Nevelson focuses on all phases of the artist’s remarkable ascent to the top of the art world, from her groundbreaking works of the 1940s to complex pieces completed in the late 1980s. The most extensive study of Nevelson to be published in over 20 years, this beautifully illustrated book also demonstrates how Nevelson’s flamboyant style and carefully cultivated persona enhanced her reputation as an artist of the first rank.
Essays by distinguished scholars examine a wide variety of important issues and themes throughout Nevelson’s career, including the role of monochromatic color in her painted wooden sculpture; the art-historical context of her work; her acclaimed large-scale commissioned artworks, which established her as a central figure in the public art revival of the late 1960s; and her “self-fashioning” as a celebrated artist, particularly her origins as a Ukrainian-born Jewish immigrant to the United States. An illustrated chronology and exhibition history accompany the text.
Published in conjunction with the first major exhibition of Nevelson’s work in America since 1980, this book provides essential information on and insights into the study of a revolutionary 20th-century artist.

Marcia Welsh - Library Journal

The Jewish Museum in New York is currently hosting the first major exhibition in a generation of sculpture by Louise Nevelson (1899-1988); on October 27, the exhibition will travel to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. This beautifully and extensively illustrated catalog, published in association with the Jewish Museum, contains essays by exhibition curator Rapaport, Michael Stanislawski (Jewish history, Columbia), Arthur C. Danto (philosophy, emeritus, Columbia), and Harriet F. Senie (art history, City Coll., CUNY). Together they explore biographical and art-historical aspects of Nevelson's work and provide updated insights and analyses. Included are an illustrated chronology of the artist's life, personal reflections by three contemporary artists, and an exhibition history. Now out of print, Louise Nevelson: Atmospheres and Environments, the catalog of the 1980 retrospective at the Whitney Museum (Nevelson's last major solo exhibition), is excellent but does not include Nevelson's later work. So this is a most welcome addition to the canon of this towering figure in 20th-century American art. Highly recommended.