Louise Nevelson was a sculptor in the 20th century. Although born in Russia, she would practice virtually her entire professional career in the United States. She was a leading artist of her time and was a pioneer for women in art. Her work earned her a reputation as a leader in assemblage and environmental sculpture.
Nevelson was born into a Jewish family in the Russian empire on September 23, 1899. Her given name was Leah Berliawsky and she was the oldest of her parent’s four children. Many members of the Beliawsky family had already began emigrating away from Russia (mostly to the United States) before Nevelson was born. Nevelson’s family stayed behind because her father took on the responsibility of caring for his elderly parents. After the death of Nevelson’s grandparents, her father joined the exodus to America while Nevelson, her mother, and siblings moved to Kiev (a part of the Russian empire at the time, now the capital of Ukraine). The absence of her father greatly distressed Nevelson, but the family would soon join her father in the United States.
Nevelson’s family settled in Rockland, Maine and took a while to adapt to life in America. English was not Nevelson’s first language (Yiddish was spoken around her home growing up). The new language combined with the family’s struggling economic situation and the religious discrimination of the time profoundly impacted her early years. She was first exposed to art at the public library and was moved to study painting further and took art classes throughout high school. Somewhat foreshadowing her significant role in the feminist movement later in her life, she served as captain of her high school’s basketball team in the pre-Title IX era. Nevelson desired to ...
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...ix million Jews killed during the Holocaust. She would work on outdoor sculptures towards the end of her career. At 75 she designed works for St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Manhattan. Although she was viewed as a key figure in the feminist movement in art she preferred to be viewed as an artist who was a woman instead of a woman artist. She would live in New York until she died at the age of 87.
Nevelson led an interesting life and was a leader and one of the most influential sculptors of the 20th century. She had to overcome many challenges in her life in order to be remembered as a successful artist.
Sources:
Chilvers, Ian. "Nevelson, Louise." The Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2009. N. pag. Print.
"Louise Nevelson." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 21 Jan. 2014. Web. 21 Jan. 2014. .
Tuele, Nicholas. British Columbia women artists, 1885-1985: an exhibition. Victoria, B.C., Canada: Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, 1985. Print.
She had a mother, father, and one sister named Olga who survived with her too. When her father passed, she had to help out with the family. She became a dressmaker. She knew how to speak German because her father knew how to speak it well. When the SS arrived, everyone was taken and put into the ghettos.
•She joined the Polish Underground when WWII broke out. (The Polish Underground aided Polish Jews)
Louise Bernice Halfe was born in 1953 in Two Hills, Alberta. Her Cree name is SkyDancer. She grew up a member of the Saddle Lake Reserve and at the age of 7 was sent to the Blue Quills Residential School in St. Paul, Alberta. . After leaving the school at the age of 16, she attended St. Paul’s Regional High School where she began to journal about her life experiences. (McNally Robinson)
Art could be displayed in many different forms; through photography, zines, poetry, or even a scrapbook. There are many inspirational women artists throughout history, including famous women artists such Artemisia Gentileschi and Georgia O’Keeffe. When searching for famous female artists that stood out to me, I found Frida Kahlo, and Barbara Kruger. Two very contrasting type of artists, though both extremely artistic. Both of these artists are known to be feminists, and displayed their issues through painting and photography. Frida Kahlo and Barbara Kruger’s social and historical significance will be discussed.
The life of Anna Julia Cooper (1858-1964) affords rich opportunities for studying the developments in African-American and Ameri can life during the century following emancipation. Like W.E.B. DuBois, Cooper's life is framed by especially momentous years in U.S. history: the final years of slavery and the climactic years of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's. Cooper's eclect ic and influential career mirrored the times. Although her life was privileged in relation to those of the majority of African-Americans, Cooper shared in the experiences of wrenching change, elevating promise, and heart-breaking disappointment. She was accordingly able to be an organic and committed intellectual whose eloquent speech was ensnarled in her concern for the future of African-Americans.
Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun was one of the most successful painters of her time. Over the course of her life, spanning from 1755-1842, she painted over 900 works. She enjoyed painting self portraits, completing almost 40 throughout her career, in the style of artists she admired such as Peter Paul Rubens (Montfort). However, the majority of her paintings were beautiful, colorful, idealized likenesses of the aristocrats of her time, the most well known of these being the Queen of France Marie Antoinette, whom she painted from 1779-1789. Not only was Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun the Queen’s portrait painter for ten years, but she also became her close, personal friend. She saw only the luxurious, carefree, colorful, and fabulous lifestyle the aristocracy lived in, rather than the poverty and suffrage much of the rest of the country was going through. Elisabeth kept the ideals of the aristocracy she saw through Marie Antoinette throughout her life, painting a picture of them that she believed to be practically perfect. Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun’s relationship with Marie Antoinette affected her social standing, politics, painting style, and career.
Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History. New York: Prentice Hall Inc. and Harry N. Abrams Inc. 1995.
Mary Cassatt was most widely known for her impressionist pieces that depicted mother (or nanny) and child. She was faced with many struggles throughout her life and received much criticism, even after her death in 1926. She found it difficult to receive appropriate recognition for her pieces during her early career. Many were unaccepted by the Salon. Cassatt lived for many years in France after her successful career, which ended abruptly when she went blind. Her talent placed her pieces in many famous museums throughout the world and landed her name among the famous artists of her time. As well as paving the way for powerful women, like herself. She lived during a time of suffragettes searching for equality.
Dexter, E. (1991). Richard Long: Tate Gallery, London - Sculpture, p. 67 . Retrieved from http://www.speronewestwater.com/cgi-bin/iowa/articles/record.html?record=61.
Knowing information about the artist plays an important role in why some art was created in such an extraordinary way. Artist Christian Petersen practiced his art during a transitional stage in American sculpture when styles moved from heroic to realistic (George Washington Carver). In 1934, Iowa State President Raymond Hughes offered Petersen a one-semester residency to create the fountain and bas-reliefs in the Dairy Industry Building courtyard. Amazingly this one semester job turned into 21 years, and from 1934 to 1955 Petersen served as Iowa State's sculptor-in-residence (George Washington Carver). According t...
Paris provided great opportunities for the young artist and she met many famous figures of the movement. She became recognizable after modeling for Man Ray who produced a series of notable and controversial photographs that featured her in the nude. Additionally, Hans Arp and Alberto Giacometti invited her to display work at the Surrealist exhibition at...
One of my favorite artist and sculptor is Louise Nevelson (1899-1988). She emigrated from Russia to America at age of three. She is an American sculptor famous in monumental, monochromatic, wooden wall pieces and outdoor sculptures. One of her famous quote makes me be her fan, " When you put together things that others have thrown out, you are really bringing them to life. A life that surpasses the life for which they were originally created. With that belief, Nevelson collected wood scraps on the streets of New York, old wood from furniture factories and assembled them to make art.Thus, her sculptures are called Assemblages, in other word, it is the installation art, which creates an artwork from a lot of different size of objects by
In the late 1960 to 1980s when the woman artists’ work hardly could be published, unlike the men, the feminists artists were rejected by the museums, galleries and many women. The issue was that nobody could see how woman had so much valued art works to show. Only the male artists were allow to be published as artists, while the women suffered of discrimination. What the women wanted was that the world treat them as equals to men. The woman wanted something different than the men. This world has focused on only the male artists and their work. The women were shrouded in silence. Linda Nochlin who is an art critic asks, "Why have there been no great women artist?” (Nochlin 2) Since women's art were degraded and rejected by the public, women's artwork was hardly published. However, with the hardships and the endurance of women trying to earn their rights as artists, the visibility of their art is brought out by the exhibitions they produce. Therefore, during the 1970s through 1980s, the feminist art movement was the turning point for feminist art to become more visible to the public.
Barnett, Peter. “The French Revolution in Art”. ArtId, January 7th 2009. Web. 5th May 2013.