Louise Nevelson, Moon Gardenscape No. XIV, 1969–1977. Painted wood and plywood, 80 5/16 × 92 1/4 × 8 5/8in. (204 × 234.3 × 21.9 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from The American Art Foundation and the Howard and Jean Lipman Foundation, Inc. 78.3. © 2025 Estate of Louise Nevelson/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
On view
Floor 5
Open: Apr 9–Aug 10, 2025
"I see New York City as a great big sculpture," Louise Nevelson once remarked. Born in Pereiaslav, Ukraine, Nevelson (1899–1988) lived and worked in Manhattan from the 1920s through the 1980s. Known for her bold monochrome assemblages or stacked and composed found objects, Nevelson was captivated by the city's ever-changing skyline and saw creative potential in discarded materials that she scavenged throughout its streets at night. By painting these sculptures a single color (black), she cloaked the specific, identifying details of disparate objects such as duck decoys, lettuce crates, and pieces of rebar, transforming them into abstract shapes. Collection View: Louise Nevelson reimagines the relationship between Nevelson's work and New York, highlighting the dynamic interplay she sought to suggest in her work between motion and stillness, light and shadow, dawn and dusk.
Nevelson had a long and deep relationship with the Whitney Museum, which organized her first retrospective in 1967. Today the Museum is one of the largest repositories of her work, with over ninety sculptures, drawings, and prints in the collection, many of them gifts of the artist. The works gathered in this exhibition, which span four decades, offer a special opportunity to shine a light on this self-proclaimed “architect of shadows.”
Collection View: Louise Nevelson is organized by Kim Conaty, Nancy and Steve Crown Family Chief Curator, with Roxanne Smith, Senior Curatorial Assistant, and Antonia Pocock, Curatorial Assistant.
Collection View: Louise Nevelson is part of Outside the Box programming, which is supported by a generous endowment from the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation.
En Español
"Veo la ciudad de Nueva York como una gran escultura," dijo Louise Nevelson. Nacida en Pereiaslav, Ucrania, Nevelson (1899–1988) vivió y trabajó en Manhattan desde los años veinte hasta los años ochenta. Conocida por sus audaces ensamblajes monocromáticos de objetos encontrados, apilados y compuestos, Nevelson quedó cautivada por la cambiante silueta de la ciudad y vio un potencial creativo en materiales descartados que recogía por las calles de noche. Al pintar estas esculturas en un sólo color (negro), ocultaba los detalles específicos e identificativos de objetos dispares como señuelos de pato, cajas de lechugas y trozos de varillas, transformándolos en formas abstractas. Mirada a la colección: Louise Nevelson reimagina la relación entre la obra de Nevelson y Nueva York, destacando la dinámica interacción que buscaba sugerir entre el movimiento y la quietud, la luz y la sombra, el amanecer y el atardecer.
Nevelson mantuvo una larga y profunda relación con el Whitney, que organizó su primera retrospectiva en 1967. Hoy, el Museo es uno de los mayores repositorios de su obra, con más de noventa esculturas, dibujos y grabados en la colección, muchos de ellos donaciones de la artista. Las obras reunidas aquí, que abarcan cuatro décadas, ofrecen una oportunidad especial para arrojar luz sobre esta autoproclamada "arquitecta de las sombras".
Mirada la colleción: Louise Nevelson forma parte de la programción Outside the Box, que cuenta con el generoso apoyo de la Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation.
Mobile guides
Louise Nevelson, Young Shadows, 1959–60. Painted wood, 115 × 126 × 7 3/4 in. (292.1 × 320 × 19.7 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from the Friends of the Whitney Museum of American Art and Charles Simon 62.34a-o. © 2025 Estate of Louise Nevelson/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
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