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Invent Yourself
New play reveals the indomitable Louise Nevelson
"I always thought, bluntly, that I was a glamorous, goddamn exciting woman," artist Louise Nevelson once said. "I wanted to have a ball on earth."
I wouldn't argue with the lady. Born in Czarist Russia in 1899, the enigmatic American sculptor, who died in New York in 1988, is one of the most memorable characters in the history of modern art. Her shadow box-y, abstract expressionist sculptures (frequently charcoal in color) were a perfect manifestation of her uncompromising personal style – intimidating, but remarkable.
Decked out in her trademark head wraps and double sets of false eyelashes, Nevelson would rummage through the trash in Little Italy, junk picking items for her elaborate assemblages. Her partner on some of these excursions was her friend of 25 years, American playwright Edward Albee (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?). An admirer of Nevelson's unstoppable will, Albee saw the artist as a committed, though imperfect, crusader for her own life and work.
"She made lots of mistakes along the way — a marriage she shouldn't have made, kids she didn't want," Albee, now 80, told Interview in 2002. "Then she abandoned all of that and went to Europe, living a hand-to-mouth bohemian existence, going to art schools and being rejected for 35 years or so until finally she became one of the most famous sculptors in America.''
I wouldn't argue with the lady. Born in Czarist Russia in 1899, the enigmatic American sculptor, who died in New York in 1988, is one of the most memorable characters in the history of modern art. Her shadow box-y, abstract expressionist sculptures (frequently charcoal in color) were a perfect manifestation of her uncompromising personal style – intimidating, but remarkable.
Decked out in her trademark head wraps and double sets of false eyelashes, Nevelson would rummage through the trash in Little Italy, junk picking items for her elaborate assemblages. Her partner on some of these excursions was her friend of 25 years, American playwright Edward Albee (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?). An admirer of Nevelson's unstoppable will, Albee saw the artist as a committed, though imperfect, crusader for her own life and work.
"She made lots of mistakes along the way — a marriage she shouldn't have made, kids she didn't want," Albee, now 80, told Interview in 2002. "Then she abandoned all of that and went to Europe, living a hand-to-mouth bohemian existence, going to art schools and being rejected for 35 years or so until finally she became one of the most famous sculptors in America.''
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