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Louise Nevelson — “I use action and counteraction, like in music, all the time. Action and counteraction. It was always a relationship – my speaking to the wood and the wood speaking back to me.” — Louise Nevelson, 1982
Louise Nevelson

“I use action and counteraction, like in music, all the time. Action and counteraction. It was always a relationship – my speaking to the wood and the wood speaking back to me.” — Louise Nevelson, 1982

Louise Nevelson's painted wood assemblage reflects her lifelong dialogue with raw materials, transforming discarded scraps and fragments into a unified, rhythmic composition. Bathed in a monochromatic coat of paint, the work unifies disparate wooden elements into a single, immersive presence, erasing individual origins in favor of collective harmony. The piece embodies Nevelson's belief in the reciprocal exchange between artist and material, where each form answers another in a continuous visual conversation of action and counteraction.

Medium
painted wood

🔨 Auction Lot

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September 17, 2015

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About this work

Louise Nevelson, “I use action and counteraction, like in music, all the time. Action and counteraction. It was always a relationship – my speaking to the wood and the wood speaking back to me.” — Louise Nevelson, 1982

Louise Nevelson's painted wood assemblage reflects her lifelong dialogue with raw materials, transforming discarded scraps and fragments into a unified, rhythmic composition. Bathed in a monochromatic coat of paint, the work unifies disparate wooden elements into a single, immersive presence, erasing individual origins in favor of collective harmony. The piece embodies Nevelson's belief in the reciprocal exchange between artist and material, where each form answers another in a continuous visual conversation of action and counteraction.

Medium
painted wood
Seen at
Phillips, New York, London, Hong Kong

Related themes

Artist Statement, Assemblage, 20th Century, Twentieth Century, Wooden Sculpture, Found Object Art, American Artist, Sculptural Installation, Assemblage Art, Acclaimed Sculptor, Wood Construction, Meditative Mood, Monochromatic, Female Artist, Found Objects

More works by Louise Nevelson

Collected by

Jonathan Murray, Alex Capecelatro, Gigi Rutkowski