Louise Nevelson

Louise Nevelson. . , Louise Nevelson, internationally known for her monumental, monochromatic environments, wall reliefs, and outdoor sculptures, was born Leah Berliawsky, near Kiev, Ukraine and raised in Rockland, Maine. The child of pogrom-fleeing Jewish parents, she combatted small-town isolation with an early interest if the arts. In 1920, she moved to New York City, where she studied voice, dance, and drama, and enrolled in the Art Students league. Her first solo exhibit was in 1941, but success came later. The landmark 1959 MoMA “Sixteen Americans” show, organized by curator Dorothy Miller, placed her in the company of ground-breaking male artists. As major museums world-wide acquired her work, her walks through city streets continued to yield numerous found and wood objects, incorporated into her sculptures. One of Nevelson’s most distinctive creations was herself. Known for her theatric appearance, her philosophical musings, and forceful persona, she lived and worked at 29 Spring Street, which she called her ‘palazzo in lower Manhattan’, from 1959 until her death. Nevelson designed Chapel of the Good Shepard (1977), located here in St. Peter’s Church, a unique sculptural environment created as an oasis of silence and place of peace.