Louise Nevelson at Pace

Pace is looking back at the pioneering work of Louise Nevelson with an immersive mix of monochromatic wooden sculptures, mixed media collages, and sculptural wall reliefs. Highlighting the 20th century sculptor’s relationship to assemblage and collage, which draws from legacies of Cubism and Constructivism, the exhibition pays particular attention to works created between the 1950s and 1980s.The artist’s work is marked by fearless forays into abstraction, fragmentation, and regular experimentation with found materials. Her confidence gave her the space she needed to explore the bounds of mediums like sculpting that were being monopolized by male artists at the time. 

Nevelson, though rarely credited for it, also influenced the early beginnings of installation art. The show includes intentional design elements like tinted windows and blue gel lighting, which reference the many environments that she constructed to imagine new ways of engaging with art. 

Showcasing a selection of graphic collages by the artist alongside her iconic sculptures, Pace offers an exciting look into a body of work that the artist herself intentionally kept private. Nevelson made collage a part of her daily practice in the 1950s, and while she chose not to exhibit it alongside her sculptural works, it became a consistent part of her life and allowed her to further explore light and color through another medium. 

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Photo: Photo courtesy of Pace Gallery.