Existing comment:
Louise Nevelson, 1899-1988
"When I used a line, it was like a violin," sculptor Louise Nevelson claimed about her expressive drawings, which she frequently exhibited along with her three-dimensional work. In this self-portrait, wiry scratches, squiggles, bold black contours, and a red overdrawing compete for attention. The robust features convey her driven personality along with the muscular expression evident in her later sculpture. The double red contours of the face hint at both profile and full-face poses, suggestive of a rotating head, Pablo Picasso's cubism, and multiple-exposure photography. Although Nevelson was described as beautiful, she distorts her features with an emotional intensity that relates to German Expressionism, Surrealism, African sculpture, and the murals of Diego Rivera, with whom she briefly apprenticed. But while Nevelson studied with Hans Hofmann and other renowned artists, she claimed no influence. Recognition for her powerful, often wall-sized, abstract sculpture came late in the career of this fiercely independent woman.
Ink and watercolor on paper, c 1938 |