Upon arriving in Philadelphia on the recent trip my family & I took, I picked up all the magazines and brochures that were around. In one of the magazines, there was a picture of one of Louise Nevelson's sculptures: a gold one from the Royal Tide series. I read that the Locks Gallery would be showing their private collection of her works during the time we were in Philly. Of course we had to go!
My family & I were the only ones there, and we were allowed to take photographs.
The mirror elements of Louise Nevelson's collages, which include found materials such as cardboard, intrigued me. It was meaningful to interact with the art, seeing myself in it, and seeing what was behind me as I viewed the piece.
The fact that Nevelson used cardboard in her art collages makes me smile. Cardboard is an everyday item, of seemingly low value, and the use of everyday items in the creation of her art was a theme of Nevelson's.
Through her art, Nevelson made statements about how we see and think about the items that exist in our everyday lives, the items we use all the time.
The theme of new ways to see runs strongly through this collection of Nevelson's art.
From Philadelphia Weekly: "Louise Nevelson’s fiercely independent approach to sculpture has become an iconic achievement in postwar art. Working primarily in wood—often found and discarded—the artist’s assemblages create environments of light, shadow, architecture and spatial dynamics. Her stacks of constructed boxes, each with intricate interior spaces became a signature approach."
"The works on view date from 1957 to 1981 and include a gold sculpture from her important Royal Tide series. Nevelson’s decision to uniformly paint all of her constructions a single color was fully realized by the 1950s—she chose gold after first working only in black, then white. In describing the gold sculptures, she noted with irony and as an immigrant, '
They promised that the streets of America
would be paved in gold.'"
The streets obviously weren't paved in gold, but leave it to Louise to find a new way to see. With her expertise, she collected those everyday items and those seemingly uses pieces of discarded goods, and turned them into something of value. She even painted them gold. What is gold? her sculpture challenges us. What is of true value? Shouldn't we value what we actually use?
As we continue our journey through Philadelphia, which echoes loudly with freedom's sounds, the messages spoken through the heart of Nevelson's art resound.
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