Louise Nevelson
American, born Russia, 1900 - 1988Cryptic #13, 1966
Not on view
Wood, paint and metal
Bequest of Mary Mallery Davis, 1990.55
Louise Nevelson's signature pieces are three-dimensional wood assemblages made from found objects, generally painted a uniform matte black. Like an architectural jigsaw puzzle, these asymmetrical constructions resemble abstract buildings or, as Nevelson has dubbed them, "cathedrals." Though smaller in scale, Cryptic #13 houses a group of wood elements within its interior space, just like her larger sculptural environments that consist of stacked and fused boxes with a myriad of recesses containing small objects. A path can be traced from Constructivism (a 1920s artistic movement originating in Russia that emphasized abstract structural forms) to Nevelson’s mature work, in particular her process of assemblage, which recalls Pablo Picasso’s wood constructions.
Nevelson studied under German-American painter Hans Hofmann in Munich, then later moved to New York, where she became a student at the Art Students League, the same school that several other Abstract Expressionists attended.
