Louise Nevelson [Paperback]

Lisle (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1991

This is a biography of Louise Nevelson, who was the boldest, most original American sculptor of the twentieth century. Her monumental works of wood, found objects and metal can be seen in parks and museums throughout the world.A flamboyant iconoclast born Leah Berliawsky in Czarish Russia in 1899, she grew up in Main, ostracized as a Jew and a foreigner. At twenty she escaped to New York as Mrs. Charles Nevelson. She lived and loved with lusty abandon, often in grinding poverty, undil she achieved fame and fortune at sixty after struggling as a woman and an artist in a world dominated by men. She was a self-made phenomenon who spanned the century and left it at eighty-eight, proud, angry, imperious--a woman whose powerful art and remarkable life made her a legend in her own time.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Masking overwhelming negative feelings with her flamboyant attire and assertive demeanor, the sculptor desperately sought recognition and independence. "As Lisle . . . charts Nevelson's trajectory from obscurity to celebrity, the reader is left with the impression of a sad, guarded woman for whom art was life," said PW.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The subject of several biographies, coffee-table books, and a book-length interview ( Dawns and Dusks , Scribner, 1976), American sculptor Nevelson (1900-88) is here presented in a well-researched, in-depth biography that can be enjoyed by a general readership. With little interest in domesticity or motherhood, though she was the mother of a son, Nevelson served a long and struggling apprenticeship before she found her style and her success. Lisle, also author of a biography of Georgia O'Keeffe, writes candidly about the unconventional Nevelson, a flamboyant figure on the New York art scene. For large general collections and modern art history libraries. Photos not seen.
- Hara Seltzer, NYPL
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Pocket (April 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671731874
• ISBN-13: 978-0671731878
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,032,033 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent biography of "high priestess of modern sculpture", August 1, 2005

By 

Bethany Rusen "queen of t black black" (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Louise Nevelson: A Passionate Life (Paperback)

Louise Nevelson really is one of the great American stories; she came to this country penniless and torn from her country and roots, without identity. she struggled to find exactly who she was and what her art meant to her, often to the detriment of her relationships and far outside the norm of the social expectations of the time. an extremely thorough and well-researched book (the author extensively interviewed the artist herself) that's not always flattering to Nevelson. the author does explore her tendencies toward neurosis, guilt and depression, though always bringing back into context with the development of her artistic vision. the definitive biography of Nevelson, in my opinion.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars No pictures please, July 15, 2006

By 

Eileen Sussholz - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Louise Nevelson: A Passionate Life (Paperback)

An interesting read, but rather disappointing in that there are absolutely no pictures of the artist or her work (besides the one portrait of the artist on the front cover.)

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Where's the art?, December 2, 2004

By 

mojosmom (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Louise Nevelson: A Passionate Life (Hardcover)

Not the book to read if you are looking for a critical analysis of Nevelson's art, this biography, while interesting, also fails to make any serious analysis of the connections between her work & her art. I don't know how you can discuss an artist's life apart from her art.