# 3381 - 2000 33c Louise Nevelson: Black Chord

Issue Date: April 6, 2000
City: New York, NY
Quantity: 55,000,000
Printed By: Ashton-Potter (USA) Ltd
Printing Method: Lithographed
Perforations: 11 x 11 ¼
Color: Multicolored

 

Louise Nevelson was one of America’s most inventive, yet unrecognized, sculptors. Born in Russia, Nevelson (1899-1988) and her family began a new life in Maine in 1905. She later married and moved to New York City, where she lived and worked most of her life.

 

Determined to get noticed, Nevelson exhibited her work at every gallery that asked in the 1940s and ‘50s. Her strategy paid off in 1955, when she began a series of shows at the Grand Central Moderns in Manhattan.

 

Nevelson’s contemporary sculptures were influenced by her childhood in Maine and her experiences in New York City. She prowled the streets of Manhattan in search of discarded packing materials, boxes, crates, and scraps of wood and metal to transform into her own distinct works of art. Chair legs, broom handles, and cabinet doors often found their way into her pieces. Expansive, three-dimensional walls of wood painted black, white, or gold are trademarks of Nevelson’s style of artwork. But she also created sculptures from terra-cotta, plaster, steel, and plexiglass.

 

Many of Nevelson’s contemporary sculptures are on display in New York City. In 1972, she presented the city with “Night Presence IV” for Christmas. It remains in place at Park Avenue and 92nd Street.