Black, Gold, White

Louise Nevelson
"Constructing A Legend"http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
Oct. 27, 2007 - Jan. 13, 2007
de Young Museum

You should read biographical pieces on her. To some, she is considered the "grandmother of installation art." She was as iconic as Warhol who was creating pop art around the same time. A Jew the Ukraine who came to America when her father's job moved, her work associates strongly with the painful history of Nazi's occupation of Germany. Other influences in her work came from collaborating with Diego Riviera and the elements found in the Cubist movement. In a video interview, she says that everything in her work begins with the cube. You will see this in her wall pieces as they can be broken down to their beginnings as boxes in a grid structure. Each box (cube) contains its unique varying shapes and arrangements of found objects. The cube is important here as it keeps everything in order among all the different shapes.



Her works from 1955 struck me as the most impressive in this exhibit. It seems that around '55 she was beginning something that later exploded into the installation pieces. But I like the simple beginning of more compact, larger shaped sculptures. From this period, the "Chief" was among my favorites.

When you explore this exhibit you will be reminded of palaces. The change from back to white to gold seems as though you are traveling through castles in different villages. So go explore!