Verbal Description: Illumination—Dark, 1961

Narrator: The work Illumination—Dark by Louise Nevelson is a sculpture that references architecture. Approximately 12-foot tall by 9-foot wide, the work is composed of eight black boxes that are shallow in depth and open facing the audience. Each “box” displays an assemblage made of wooden scraps cast in bronze.

At the base of this sculpture are three boxes: two square boxes flanking a taller rectangular box at the center, much like the olympic podium. Nevelson arranged the second row of three boxes diagonally with the tallest box on our left and each subsequent box diminishing in size slightly as we move to our right. On the top row, two boxes crown the sculpture.

Inside each of the eight boxes are assemblages made of scrap wood the artist collected, manipulated, and carefully arranged before casting these assemblages in bronze; resembling precious relics of the past carefully displayed in individual cases.