One of the first exhibitions to explore Louise Nevelson’s sculptures and works on paper in dialogue with their historical moment, The World Outside: Louise Nevelson at Midcentury illuminates the artist’s multidimensional command of form and attunement to postwar culture in the United States. It features more than sixty defining artworks by Nevelson, including wall works, installations, drawings, and prints.

Divided into thematic sections that explore Nevelson’s identity as an artist—delving into her involvement in modern dance, her interest in the environment and community building, and her innovations as a printmaker—The World Outside allows Nevelson’s sculptures and works on paper to be viewed through the lens of the artistic and cultural landscape that shaped her vision, reaffirming her significance as an artist.

The Colby Museum’s presentation will highlight Nevelson’s ties to Maine, where she spent her childhood, and feature works that the artist donated to the museum in 1973, when the Jetté Galleries, where the exhibition will appear, were inaugurated. Among the national and international loans are such iconic works as Lunar Landscape, Royal Tide I, Rain Forest Wall, and Transparent Sculpture I.

Sponsors:

The World Outside: Louise Nevelson at Midcentury is organized by the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. Generous support for the project comes from The Kaleta A. Doolin Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Funding of the Colby Museum’s presentation of The World Outside: Louise Nevelson at Midcentury is provided by the Wyeth Foundation for American Art; Bob ’87 and Cynthia Macdonald/The Louella and Nicholas Martin Charitable Fund; Heidi Irving Naughton ’88 and Kevin Naughton; Lucy S. Rhame.

Image Credit:

Cascade VIII, 1979. Painted wood, 94 1/2 x 72 1/2 10 in. (240 x 184.2 x 25.4 cm). Colby College Museum of Art, The Lunder Collection, 2010.461. (c) 2017 Estate of Louise Nevelson/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.