Louise Nevelson
By The Lake
1966

Name: By The Lake
Brand: Louise Nevelson
Price: 5250 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

Collage was an important part of Louise Nevelson's practice. The process mirrored her approach to sculpture; taking disparate elements and assembling or uniting them into a complex whole. Similar to many of her American contemporaries, Nevelson delved into printmaking. She worked with the leading printing studios in America adopting new techniques while expanding her aesthetic and oeuvre considerably. This collage was the final maquette or design, that would be screen printed becoming "By the Lake" (from "Façade: In Homage to Edith Sitwell"). Nevelson worked with Chiron Press in New York, which had opened in 1962 and was just a stone's throw from her 11th Street home studio. The works in this series were dedicated to the British poet Edith Sitwell who passed away in 1964. Sitwell had published a book of abstract poems titled Façade, the poems' rhythms were counterparts to music set by the famed English composer, William Walton. Façades became a form of entertainment as Sitwell's poems would be read aloud to Walton's music, ultimately being made into a ballet. Drawing inspiration from her favorite Sitwell poems, Nevelson created stunning photo collages of her own sculptures. These maquettes were then silkscreened onto paper, creating a mixture of abstraction and still life, mirroring the merging of poetry and music of Sitwell's Façade's. This particular maquette has a few variations from the final print. Most notably the stark background is replaced with a cerulean blue and Nevelson's hand-written notes vanish. "By the Lake" is the only work in the series that appears on this muted blue background. This bold primary color is an anomaly in Nevelson's world. This piece presents a rare opportunity to acquire an iconic collage by Nevelson at an affordable and accessible price. "By the Lake" USA, 1966 Collage and screenprint on yellow wove paper 23.5”H 20”W (work) 26.5"H 23"W (framed) Very good condition.

Creator:

Louise Nevelson (1899 - 1988, American)

Creation Year:

1966

Dimensions:

Height: 26.5 in (67.31 cm)Width: 23 in (58.42 cm)

Medium:

Screen

Movement & Style:

Abstract Expressionist

Period:

1960-1969

Condition:

Very good condition.

Gallery Location:

Toronto, CA

Reference Number:

Seller: 12-221stDibs: LU215211460762

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Shop All Louise Nevelson

Louise Nevelson

Louise Nevelson was one of the leading American female sculptors of the 20th century, and she did it on her own terms. She was a pioneer of installation art and created large-scale monochromatic sculptures that are today known for their provocative, compartmentalized forms. While her assemblages involved a range of materials, she is best known for her wooden sculptures. Working in a single color was her signature, and all-encompassing color demanded an all-encompassing focus for this artist — she even kept separate studios for work in black, white and gold.

Nevelson was born in what is now Ukraine in 1899 and emigrated to the United States with her family in 1905. She moved to New York City as a young woman in 1920 to study at the Art Students League. In the 1930s, Nevelson traveled around Europe, came into contact with the works of Picasso, studied with Hans Hofmann and assisted Diego Rivera in New York City.

Nevelson had her first solo show in 1941 at the Nierendorf Gallery in New York. In the late 1940s, she studied with Stanley William Hayter and worked as a ceramicist in the workshop of revered furniture designer Vladimir Kagan, who let her take scraps from the factory to use in her sculptures. (As a child, Nevelson had also worked with discarded wood from her father's lumber yard.)

By the early 1950s, Nevelson had traveled to Guatemala and Mexico. She was inspired by pre-Columbian art and the totemic works of ancient cultures. Nevelson began creating the first of her iconic wood sculptures and later participated in the legendary “Sixteen Americans” exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. Her work was acquired by prominent institutions in the years that followed.

Nevelson made reliefs in shadow boxes and was for a time affiliated with New York City’s Sidney Janis Gallery as its first female Abstract Expressionist artist (her work was abstract but she also drew on the Cubist and Constructivist movements). In the early 1960s, Nevelson showed her art in Chicago, Manhattan, Paris and West Germany. It was around this time that she exhibited at Pace Gallery in Boston and New York. The gallery represented her for the duration of her career.

Nevelson died in 1988, but her legacy is immense. Her work is held in virtually every major American art museum, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Art. Her permanent large-scale public sculptures are installed all over the country, including in Louise Nevelson Plaza in New York City's Financial District.

On 1stDibs, find original Louise Nevelson sculptures, prints and drawings.