Tremaine Collection
Louise Nevelson | Moon Garden Reflections | 1956
© 2021 Estate of Louise Nevelson / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Known as the grand dame of contemporary sculpture, Louise Nevelson gained renown in 1958 with a pivotal exhibition of her work at Grand Central Moderns Gallery, entitled Moon Garden + One. She was in her sixties at the time and was making sculptures from found wooden objects painted black. These "natural" materials were in direct opposition to the welded metal works of male peers like David Smith. Influenced by Cubism, Nevelson created "environments" for the gallery: her monumental floor-to-ceiling wood assemblages lined the walls, and she dimmed the lights so that sculpture and viewer were united in the dark, monochromatic palette. Of the pieces Emily Hall Tremaine acquired from 1958 to 1960, Moon Garden Reflections and the accompanying pieces from Moon Garden Series (not shown here) were her favorites. Emily explained in a letter to Nevelson that they "give us a sense of the mystic emotionalism of the Gothic spirit. The macabre playfulness with grotesque angles, high vaulted shadows, nails, etc." |
|
|