Louise Nevelson: A Passionate Life [Hardcover]

Laurie Lisle (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1990

The only biography of this important American sculptor, Louise Nevelson is the story of an artist who became a legend in her time. Born in a Russian village, she grew up in Maine and married a wealthy New Yorker. As her dedication to art grew, she abandoned her husband and neglected her son. She found inspiration in old wood, creating a rich iconography of blackened images. After achieving success at the age of sixty, she adopted an exotic persona while continuing to add to the magnificent body of work that is today found in public parks and major museums throughout the world.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In her trademark bandanna and exotic garb, flamboyant, self-assertive Louise Nevelson (1899-1988) posed as high priestess of modern sculpture. This persona, according to Lisle's solidly researched biography, was the convenient mask of a woman torn by lifelong depression and inferiority feelings, crippling guilt over the son she neglected and the desire to pursue personal independence at any cost. Born Leah Berliawsky in czarist Russia, she escaped a penurious girlhood in Maine by marrying shipping broker Charles Nevelson (whom she later divorced) and moving to New York City in 1920. During her years of bitter struggle for recognition, she took many lovers (among them Diego Rivera) while avoiding emotional commitment to any one man. As Lisle, biographer of Georgia O'Keeffe, 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.
Copyright 1990 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.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1ST edition (February 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671675168
• ISBN-13: 978-0671675165
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,138,850 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #43 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Arts & Literature > Artists, Architects & Photographers

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.