Purchased with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and the North Carolina State Art Society (Robert F. Phifer Bequest)
Artist Louise Nevelson was inspired by the assemblages of Joseph Cornell. She created unique sculptures that she called Zags by filling boxes with stacked pieces of wood and small trinkets that she had found. She spray painted the Zags a solid color (usually black) to create a feeling of unity. When she was asked about her use of the color black in her sculptures, Nevelson said, “It’s only an assumption of the Western world that it means death. For me it may mean finished, completeness, maybe eternity.” Although Nevelson’s Zags are made up of many separate pieces, the monochromatic color scheme ties the pieces together into a single sculpture.
Nevelson was one of the most famous women artists in the mid-1900s. She helped pave the way for the feminist art movement. This art movement encouraged women to make art about their experiences. It also created opportunities for women artists. Social and economic factors prevented most women from having successful art careers at the time.
Throughout her art career, Nevelson studied and worked with famous artists including Hans Hofmann and Diego Rivera. She also taught art as part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a government program designed to help Americans get jobs during the Great Depression. The WPA funded construction projects like roads and bridges. It also gave funding to visual artists, musicians, actors, and writers.
tags: form, shape, pattern, part/whole, change, order, variation
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