Louise Nevelson came into my life when I was sixteen years old learning about contemporary art. I was fascinated by her. She was a tiny Russian woman who was utilizing reclaimed materials to create large monochromatic (mostly black, sometimes white) assemblage sculptures. I often wondered if it was because her father was a lumber merchant that wood became her media of choice. She studied art in high school but worked in an office as a stenographer before she was married and then went on to study fine arts even though artists were not well regarded by her husband's family. She eventually divorced her husband but continued to study the arts and became Diego Rivera's assistant (and his mistress for a time...as was almost everyone it seems) as he worked on a mural at Rockefeller Plaza. She painted, worked in clay and printmaking living mostly in poverty with her son until she began creating large sculptures out of found materials (mostly wood but also experimented with plastic, metal and aluminium) in her 50's. She received financial and professional success in her 70's.
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