Raymond Saunders, Assemblage - Links with Kiki Smith and Louise Nevelson

Take a look at this image of Assemblage. That red rectangle on the left is a piece of oilcloth. There's a Chinese checkers board. There's a chair. There's an article about the Tuskegee airmen. There are two oil paintings. There's a little of this and a little of that. Raymond Saunders collected much of this from the streets on his walks. Two other artists here at Fifty Two Pieces have also collected detritus from the streets. Most recently Kiki Smith in Week 25. And in week 24, we saw the queen of detritus, Louise Nevelson. There are any number of people who pick up "stuff" from the streets -- not all of them make works of art from those little bits and pieces though.

Here's a quote from Raymond Saunders about this method of making art. Each of the objects “finds you; you find it. You become visually receptive, attuned. You take something off the street, not knowing if you’ll use it, or how. I’ll see a sign on a phone pole, walk three blocks thinking about it, go back and get it, take it home and later discard it. Then I ask myself, Why did I ever bother carrying this across town?” So don't think yourself foolish if you pick up "stuff" off the street. You, too, could make art from all of those pieces you bring home. It seems that it's the intention of your act when you're creating that makes it art.

Honoring Louise

Here is one honor Nevelson acheived posthumously: a stamp the U.S. Government issued in 2000,there are five and each has a photo of one of her monochrome sculptures. The city of New York also honored the artist by naming a plaza after her in downtown Manhatten.


And what would she think of this stamp?
Here is a quote from Louise Nevelson by Arnold B. Glimcher:

Once her friend and patron Howard Lipman showed her an early American rocking chair that he had just acquired.
He asked Nevelson's opinion of the chair.
"I couldn't care less about the chair," she said, "but look at its shadow."
She has that same self assured, bold personality in both portraits.
I recently read an essay called "Waiting" by Edna O'Brien, in it she says we do not learn to love, hate or argue any differently as we grow. I think in some cases that is a good thing.

Louise Nevelson ~ Arnold Scaasi, Arnold Newman and Edith Sitwell

If you were friends with Louise Nevelson, you could be fairly certain that any night out with her would include scavenging the streets. Arnold Scaasi, the renowned dress designer who has clothed the very rich and famous, recounts such events in his interviews and books. In his book Women I Have Dressed, he devotes an entire chapter to his client and friend Louise Nevelson. His memories include dining with Nevelson and her companion Diana MacKown at a restaurant near Nevelson's home on Spring Street. While there Nevelson waved to her many Mafia friends, men who made certain she was taken care of in those perilous days of the sixties and seventies near Little Italy. Like with many other dinners and events, including those when they were being driven in Scaasi's car, Nevelson would command that the driver stop the car, she would exit, pick up bits of wood and other detritus. With the help of all of the other occupants including Scaasi and his driver, the bootie would be loaded into the trunk and carried away to Nevelson's Spring Street home.

Scaasi will always remember Nevelson's love of black. In addition to his home on Central Park South, he owned a home in the Hamptons, a natural shingle mansion of sorts. One weekend he invited her and MacKown to spend some time away from the city. Lured by the promise of lobster (she loved that from her days in Maine), she was holding court one afternoon and cheerily proclaimed that Scaasi's house would look ever so much grander if it were painted black. Within the month, Scaasi had implemented that suggestion and became the talk of the neighborhood. He did love his all black mansion though.

Arnold Newman, the world renowned photographer, had a special affection for Louise Nevelson. His photograph of her is on the US Postal Service's stamp honoring her work as a sculptor. The photo on the left was taken at a fundraiser and shows Arnold with Louise's granddaughter Maria Nevelson. Maria is also a sculptor and had met Arnold when she interviewed him about her grandmother. Louise Nevelson's family relations were strained so Newman was able to provide her granddaughter with an insight into her that Maria was unaware of. Especially poignant was Newman's story of the time he photographed Nevelson at the Whitney in 1980. This was the day she learned her brother died. They continued the photo session even though Louise was visibly upset. Maria stated "I had never seen my grandmother cry, always strong and composed." Juxtapose that with "My work is delicate; it may look strong, but it is delicate. True strength is delicate. My whole life is in it...." and you get a clear picture of Louise Nevelson's inner psyche. The photo on the left is of Newman, Maria Nevelson and Newman's photo of Louise Nevelson.






Knowing what someone reads is another insight into their personality. Dame Edith Sitwell was one of Louise Nevelson's favorite poets. Her Façade suite of 1967 was created in homage to Sitwell who died in 1964. It is comprised of twelve prints that involve photography, silkscreen, and collage on paper and acetate sheets, each including a Sitwell poem. To the right is the image that was created for Lullaby for Jumbo below.

Lullaby for Jumbo
Jumbo asleep!
Grey leaves thick-furred
As his ears, keep
Conversations blurred.
Thicker than hide
Is the trumpeting water;
Don Pasquito’s bride
And his youngest daughter
Watch the leaves
Elephantine grey:
What is it grieves
In the torrid day?
Is it the animal
World that snores
Harsh and inimical
In sleepy pores?
And why should the spined flowers
Red as a soldier
Make Don Pasquito
Seem still mouldier?
Dame Edith Sitwell (1887–1964)

A Personality Test

I asked a group of seventh graders where they would live in this city. We were gazing at Nevelson's nightscape as though flying over it. Someone said she would live way up high in the middle of city, in the tallest building of all. Someone else said he would sleep in one of the big empty rectangles, because he thought these were the parks. A girl said she would live way off on the corner, where the city ends.
For me it's like that line in the Woody Allen movie- Vicky Christina Barcelona. Christina's view on life "I know what I don't want" is her mantra as she searches the world. I get that feeling when I try to place myself in a space. I more readily know where I don't want to be. Of all ten seventh graders, only three pointed out their destinations. Maybe I am part of the majority. Those of us that are just not quite sure.

Louise Nevelson ~ White House Appearances with Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama

Check out this shot of Louise Nevelson with Jimmy Carter. Nevelson has been invited to the White House at least twice – the first in person as shown here and the second represented by her art. In 1979 the Women's Caucus for Art presented their first Annual Lifetime Achievement Awards. Recipients in addition to Louise Nevelson were none other than Georgia O'Keefe, Isabel Bishop, Selma Burke, and Alice Neel. If I should ever have a chance to speak with Jimmy Carter or his wife Rosalind, my first question, after telling them what an honor it is to be in their presence, will be what they thought that day when they met Louise Nevelson. My follow-up would be which piece of her work they liked the best.

Following in this grand tradition of innovation, the Obamas have recently added new art to the White House.President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama have broken with tradition and have added twentieth century art to the walls of the White House. George Bush did hang a Jacob Lawrence. But the Obamas have moved far past that and have sent word to museums, galleries and private collectors that they’d like to borrow modern art by African-American, Asian, Hispanic and female artists for the White House. They are choosing bold, abstract art works including Nicolas de Stael's Nice, Alma Thomas' Skylight, Jasper Johns' Numerals 0-9, Richard Diebenkorn's Berkeley No. 52 and the one on the left by Ed Ruscha...




The Wall Street Journal reports that the Obamas have also selected a work of art by Louise Nevelson although I've yet to find reference to which one. The rules as to what art work can be added vary depending upon where the work will hang. The Obamas are free to hang whatever they want in their residence and offices, including the Oval Office. Work added to public rooms must be approved by the White House curator and the Committee for the Preservation of the White House, an advisory board on which the first lady serves as honorary chair. The rules are even stricter when the work will be added to the permanent collection. Those pieces must be at least twenty-five years old and are generally not from living artist because that could impact the market value of the works.

When I wasn't wandering around Las Vegas yesterday, I was wandering around the internet to do research for this post. In addition to the great photo of the Carters with Louise Nevelson, I did find this beautiful self-portrait Nevelson did in 1938. Although she said she knew she'd be a sculptor when she was nine years old, she didn't actually start creating sculptures until the 1940's and her famous assemblages until the 1950's. In the thirties she was drawing and painting. The black outlines around her eyes could be seen as harbingers of the long fake eyelashes she became famous for later in life.

Anne Bancroft as Louise Nevelson

There are a few films that include Louise Nevelson, one is called Hans Hoffman and was made in 2003, the other is Sculptors at Storm King from 1992, a film that includes Mark DiSuvero, Richard Serra and David Smith. In 2002 Anne Bancroft played the leading role in Edward Albee's play Occupant about Nevelson's life. I can see why Bancroft was cast. There is a wonderful piece on the blog The House Next Door, where writer Dan Callahan remembers Bancroft on stage giving it her all when an audience member stands to leave and Bancroft stops what she is doing to ask the woman to give her a chance, truly Nevelson-esque.
Here is a drawing of Anne Bancroft playing Louise Nevelson.

Louise Nevelson ~ the Colorful Artist who Loved Black

Louise Nevelson, the artist who created this week’s piece for Fifty Two Pieces, has always acted on her vision of the world. In 1975 at a dinner given by the Israel Museum in honor of Louise Nevelson, the sculptor stood up and said, "First of all, I want to thank . . . myself." This incredible persona can be traced back to her early childhood. Born in Russia in 1899, she felt her father had abandoned her when he left for Rockland, Maine in 1903 to start a new life for his family. She stopped talking. Fortunately for us all, Nevelson’s father sent for his family in 1905. At age nine, she saw a statue of Joan of Arc at the Rockland Public Library in Maine and decided to sculpt, telling the local librarian

"I'm going to be a sculptor. I don't want color to help me.”

Following the ribbon of her life, you’ll see her craft her way out of rural Maine where her family had risen from poverty but not free of anti-Semitism. Her father had originally supplmented his income as a timber merchant by scavenging for junk to resell. In 1920, she met and married Charles Nevelson, part of a family who owned a shipping company, and found herself in New York City, an environment where she could take art classes, dance classes. Marriage and motherhood would get into her way though. In 1922, she gave birth to Myron, her only child. Charles’ family disapproved of her desire to be an artist and Charles most certainly wanted a wife who would be part of the social scene. So she started over. In 1931 when the country was well into the Great Depression, Nevelson left Charles, took Myron to Maine to live with her mother and went to Europe.

Her goal was to study Cubism and to reach that goal she moved to Munich to take classes with Hans Hoffman. Her return to New York City was at the same time as Hoffmann’s, who went to America in 1932. She continued to study with him in New York at the Art Students League. As Amy described yesterday, she was an environmental artist. She began to gather wooden objects on the streets of New York. Following in the footsteps of her father, she was making her career from wood and junk. And this is where her passion for black came through. She had assembled her found objects into groupings and then painted them black. So when you see a sculpture such as the one from this week, painted black, it will likely be a Nevelson. They may be black and seem monochromatic but they all contain different objects, creating different worlds. And with black as described by Nevelson there was no need for other color, although there are occasional white and gold works. “black contained all colour... It was an acceptance... Black is the most aristocratic colour of all.”

Even though Nevelson’s work did not sell until she was in her fifties, she kept on creating, living her life fully, creating her art and a presence that eventually became known. “Through years without recognition the only thing that kept me going was that I wouldn’t be appeased.”

A search through Youtube produces this video of an interview of her in her characteristic long head scarf and long eyelashes. During the week we’ll continue to look into her life. It will be a fun ride...

***Update 15:53, LAS (Las Vegas)*** Louise Nevelson sighted in Smith's at the deli counter. She was on her way home from her daily visit to The Wynn.

Louise Nevelson

'I seek truth. What I seek is anything that will work for me. I'll use a lie if it works, and that [becomes] the truth.' Louise Nevelson
As I went through the bags of recycling this morning, moving around plastic bags, milk cartons, tuna cans, beer bottles, all of it, into an organized set of bags, I was reminded of a website I visited yesterday, www.LNPB.org, leave no plastic behind. This organization is responsible for the plastic quilt project, one in which artists were asked to create a square for the quilt made of plastic, and also asked to refrain from buying plastic of any kind for fifteen months. I fell in love instantly with the idea. I don't even know if it's possible, could I find a way to eat all year without buying a thing packaged in plastic? I would have to take my glass jars to the grocery store, buy grains in bulk, have the butcher put my meats in paper, or in glassware, how would they handle me at Fred Meyer? I would probably have to buy some meat from a butcher and keep it in the freezer I have buried in the basement, the one I once hid the television in so John couldn't find it, so we could be free of those talking heads for a few weeks.
I would have to eat a lot more fresh food, isn't that what plastic does, keeps things from losing their freshness because the truth is they should have been eaten a while ago?
Something tells me Louise Nevelson would have joined in on the quilt project, that she would have been part of this Leave No Plastic Behind movement, and I guess we have that in common.