Cardboard Assemblage Sculpture Inspired by Louise Nevelson
When you put things together, things that other people have thrown out, you’re really bringing them to life.
- louise nevelson
Find the complete project plan with supply suggestions, about the artist section, vocabulary words, step by step photos and tips here:
Louise Nevelson was born in Russia (in the region we now know as Kyiv, Ukraine) in 1899. Her family immigrated to the United States when she was 6 years old to escape the torment that Ukrainian Jews were experiencing under the rule of the Tsarist Empire. At the start of the Russian Revolution her family fled and settled in Rockland, Maine.
These photographs are shared for educational purposes only we do not own the rights to these images. Left: Louise Nevelson in her home, photographed by Lynn Gilbert ©1976, as commissioned by the Pace Gallery, New York City. Photographs of Louise Nevelson’s work Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.
Louise said that she knew she was an artist when she was 9 years old. Being an artist provided her an identity that she could make all her own. An identity that lived outside of the challenges of her early childhood. Outside of the culture clash she experienced living as a Jewish immigrant in a small New England town at the turn of the 20th century.
“My whole life is one big collage. Every time I put on clothes, I am creating a picture, a living picture, for myself.”
Louise expressed herself as an artist in every aspect of her life - and she certainly dressed the part. She favored a dramatic layered silhouette topped off with piles of jewelry collected from her travels. She was known to wrap her head in a colorful scarf or don a velvet riding helmet and she never left home without a smokey eye and a bold faux lash.
“When you put things together, things that other people have thrown out, you're really bringing them to life—a spiritual life that surpasses the life for which they were originally created.”
In her 20s Louise moved to New York City to study drama and later enrolled in fine art classes at the Art Students League. She dabbled in painting and printmaking before dedicating herself to sculpture. It could be said that Louise was the queen bee of up-cycled art. She was completely taken with the beauty of every day items and discarded materials. Shards of wood, broken sections of furniture, loose parts carefully collected, rearranged and then painted in a single color. This monochrome dressing neutralized the details of the found object's former life and harmonized the pieces into a single magnificent work of art.
These photographs are shared for educational purposes only we do not own the rights to these images.
Left: Royal Tide II 1961–1963 Middle: ouise Nevelson, Dawn’s Wedding Chapel IV, 1959-1960, wood painted white, 276.9 x 221 x 34.3 cm, Courtesy Pace Gallery, © Photo: G. R. Christmas, © ADAGP, Paris Right: © 2001 Estate of Louise Nevelson/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, New York. Photograph by R. H. Hensleigh.
To learn more about this amazing artist, visit The Louise Nevelson Foundation
We have seen a lot of wonderful Louise Nevelson projects over the years but many of them require loose wood parts and spray paint (not the most accessible or kid and environmentally friendly materials). Our goal with this Louise Nevelson inspired project was three fold:
1. keep the materials readily available and low or no cost
2. use liquid paint (acrylic or tempera) so younger artists can paint them without adult help
3. make them stand!
Louise really knew how to scour her environment to find interesting materials. In this invitation to create, we start by scouring our recycling bin. Cardboard, egg cartons, perforated packaging, lids and caps. Let's start to look at ordinary items in a new way!
