Sculpture: THE ABSTRACTION OF LOUISE NEVELSON - ON THE EDGE OF THE ABYSS & THE GEOMETRY OF FEAR

At the end of the 19th century, sculptures departed from naturalism and human representation to embrace the innovative shapes and ideas of Modernism.

With August Rodin, statues became sculptures, Constantin Brancusi removed them from their traditional plinths and Alexander Calder suspended them on wires to create movement and kinetic pieces. Rather than carving, modelling, or casting, sculptors created new, stylized, abstracted, contrasting and distorted forms with unusual materials, ready-made and found objects.

After the apocalyptic destruction of the two World Wars, artists could no longer describe the world through the figurative tradition. Informed by the exploration of the self and psychoanalytical theories, they wanted to redeem culture and make powerful statements about traumatic experiences and visceral emotions. Abstraction attempted to fill this unbearable void between humanity and horror by expressing our preoccupation with darkness, fear, and loneliness.

Louise Nevelson (1899-1988) pioneered site-specific installations with monochromatic monumental sculptures made of boxes…