A New Yorker for most of her life, Louise Nevelson created dramatic and monumental sculptures often made from found objects and discarded pieces of wood gathered from city streets. Like the artist herself, Nevelson’s work seems to possess the irresistible energy of the city, at once taciturn yet teeming with life. Nevelson came to prominence in the 1950s with a body of work called Sky Cathedral, sculptural environments of stacked, wooden boxes filled with assemblages and spray painted black. This exhibition will focus on one of the earliest of these large, monochromatic wall reliefs, Sky Cathedral (1957 – 58) which is in SJMA’s collection. Nevelson originally made this long, horizontal piece to go over the bar in her brother’s Thorndike Hotel in Rockland, Maine.

Sponsored by Doris and Alan Burgess. Additional support provided by Cornelia and Nathan Pendleton.