루이즈 네벨슨

1899: Louise Nevelson is born in Kiev. 1905: Mother and child leave Russia and settle with the father in Rockland, Maine; Louise develops her love of collecting, of wood and the visual, and the realization of being an artist. 1920: Gets married to the well-to-do businessman Charles Nevelson. Moves to New York City, where they have an active social life. 1923: Birth of their son Myron 1929–1930: Continues her studies at the Art Students League. 1931: Separates from Charles Nevelson; leaves her son with her parents in Maine and goes to Europe. Studies under Hans Hofmann in Munich and works in the film industry in Vienna. 1932: Returns to New York and studies again under Hans Hofmann, who immigrated to the USA prior to the political developments in Germany. 1933: Meets Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo and works as an assistant in Rivera's studio. 1942: Focuses primarily on Cubist figure studies in stone, bronze, terracotta and wood. Meets Peggy Guggenheim and numerous European artists who have immigrated to the USA, including, among others, André Breton, Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp and Piet Mondrian. 1943: Her solo exhibition at Galerie Norlyst in New York is not a success; she begins to integrate found objects of wood into her work; following the death of her mother, the family buys a house for her on East 30th Street, New York. 1948: Travels to Europe with her sister Anita; has tumor surgery and a depression, followed by a highly creative phase; becomes engaged with pre-Columbian art. 1954: Begins collecting wooden boxes, thrown-away furniture and pieces of wood; painting them black, she assembles them into sculptures. 1955: First use of wooden boxes as containers for her objects; stacks them together to create extensive installations, thus creating a world of boxed light and shadow. 1956: With Black Majesty, the Whitney Museum of Modern Art becomes the first major museum to acquire her work; by acquiring a sculpture in her studio, Georges Mathieu becomes the first European to purchase her work. 1958: The Museum of Modern Art purchases Sky Cathedral, a monumental key piece consisting of almost 60 stacked boxes. 1962: Selected for the American Pavilion of the 31st Venice Biennale: creates a three-room installation in black, white and gold. Her preference for extravagant clothing and self-expression increases. 1965: Takes part in the National Council on the Arts and Government in Washington DC; the Israel Museum acquires Homage to the 6,000,000 II. 1966: Creates the first large-scale metal sculptures using aluminum and steel; receives an Honorary Doctorate from Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio. 1967: First museum retrospective (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York). 1968: Participates in documenta 4 in Kassel. 1974: Invited by President Gerald Ford to the White House; exhibitions at the National Gallery of Berlin and the Centre National d’Art Contempora in the Georges Pompidou in Paris. 1976: Her largest wooden sculpture, Bicentennial Dawn, is set up in the Federal Courthouse in Philadelphia; Honorary Doctorate from New York University. 1978: The sculpture Shadows and Flags is installed on a public plaza named after her, the Louise Nevelson Plaza in Lower Manhattan; the piece Sky Gate, New York commissioned for the World Trade Center (destroyed on 9 September 2011). 1985: Donates 25 works to different major museums in the USA and Europe; receives the National Medal of Arts from President Ronald Reagan, the Goldmedaille des Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of the French Ministry of Culture, the Athena Award of the New York City Commission on the Status of Women as well as numerous Honorary Doctorates, including from Harvard and Brandeis University. 1988: Dies on April 17 in New York.