Louise NEVELSON

Born in 1899 in Pereïaslav, Ukraine
Died in 1988 in New York, USA

Louise Nevelson’s Russian family moved to Maine in the United States. Determined to be an artist, she moved to New York City after marriage, decided on beginning her studies of art, which she did at the Art Students League in 1928. She spent time with her professors like Hans Hofmann, but also with her contemporaries Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Jackson Pollock. Her work attracted the attention of critics in the 1940s. An abstract artist, she stood out from her contemporaries, like Isamu Noguchi, for her use of non-noble materials. Because of her status as a female artist, she only became a success in 1958. In 1959, her art was displayed at MoMA with that of Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns in the exhibition 16 Americans. She went on to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale in 1962. She began her long career as a fundamental, even revolutionary sculptor, in both art history in general and in feminist art. Her oeuvre paved the way for female sculptors the likes of Eva Hesse and it continues to influence the sculptresses of today.