(Kiev 1899-1988 New York) Expanding Reflection Zag I, 1977, wood, painted black, 135 x 131 x 19 cm, (PP)

Literature: Fondazione Umberto Severi, Scultura contemporanea a cura di Pier Giovanni Castagnoli, Franco Cosimo Panini Editore, Modena 1992, ill. page 66-67 Provenance: The Pace Gallery, New York (purchased directly from the artist); Private collection (purchased from The Pace Gallery, New York in December 1977); Christie‘s New York Contemporary Art (Part II), 18 November 1990, Lot 336 (sale 7154); Fondazione Umberto Severi, Sant‘Antonio, Pozza di Maranello (MO); Galleria d‘Arte Maggiore, Bologna; Private European collection Louise Nevelson, the daughter of a Russian Jewish couple, emigrated with her family from Kiev to America, Rockland, Maine around 1905. In 1920 she moved to New York. She worked with Hans Hofmann, Diego Rivera and Stanley William Hayter. The focus of her oeuvre is her large scale, wooden assemblages in the style of reliefs, which she unified into a whole through the medium of colour, mostly black, but also with white or gold. In 1977 Louise Nevelson created her work „Expanding Reflection Zag I“, one of her wall-hung wooden constructions in her characteristic black. She filled the horizontal, vertical and interwoven wooden elements with countless small details which, in part, produce a zig-zag pattern. By the end of the 1950’s the American sculptor had found her own voice, one that was expressed in wood, monochrome colour effects and a certain regularity. Her works have a magical effect.