Lot 22 N

Louise Nevelson is one of the most significant sculptors of the 20th century. In 1959, the works in wood by the Ukrainian artist were shown for the first time in the exhibition „Sixteen Americans“ at the Museum of Modern Art. In 1962, the artist was featured in the American pavilion at the Venice Biennale, and in 2022 an extensive retrospective was dedicated to her there.
Cubism, the works of Marcel Duchamps, as well as African and Pre-Columbian art pertained to her most important sources of inspiration. Initially, she worked with ceramics but then switched to the material of wood for which she became well-known. During the 1970s Nevelson also resorted to materials such as aluminium, steel, and plexiglass. In her distinctive, abstract assemblages, she combined everyday objets trouvés with self-created elements and covered them in a monochrome layer of black, white, or gold paint. This layer gives a visual unification to the disparate individual elements and lends the sculptures a sacral and eccentric aura. Nevelson was particularly fascinated by the universe and celestial phenomena and by shadow. Thus, the edition work „Maquette for Sun Disc/Moon Shadow V“ also thematizes the diverse, complex light and shadow effects of the celestial bodies sun and moon. The maquette is based on the large single version „Sun Disc/Moon Shadow V“ of 1976, which is now in the Middelheim Museum, Antwerp.