On exhibit through September 18, Louise Nevelson: Architect of Light and Shadow in the Northwest bedroom gallery at Reynolda House is curated by Dr. Jennifer Finkel, the Acquavella Curator of Collections at Wake Forest University. It includes sculptures, prints, collages, and assemblages that support Nevelson’s self-identification as the architect of light and shadow. In her talk, Finkel will discuss the artist as pioneer and boundary-breaker, as she absorbed stylistic currents and influences of the pre- and post-war periods and pushed the medium of sculpture forward into new and unique territories. Bring a brown bag lunch to enjoy during the presentation.
One of the most important American artists and sculptors of the twentieth century, Louise Nevelson (1899–1988) found beauty in discarded materials and urban detritus. She painted her found materials a single color—most often black—and then composed, layered, assembled, joined, and configured until they shed their original skin and became elements that absorbed light and cast a landscape of shadows. A culmination and crescendo of numerous stylistic influences, the assemblages were part painting, part sculpture, part architecture, and part theatre. They were—as critics noted—whole environments. Louise Nevelson was indeed the pioneer environmental artist, creating what today we know as installation art.