Untitled (Standing Female Nude)

ca. 1932-1934

Louise Nevelson

American, born Russia, 1899-1988

Contemporary Art

This spare graphite drawing of a female nude torn from a spiral notebook is one of hundreds that Louise Nevelson created—almost compulsively—between 1929 and 1934, early in her artistic career, when she was experimenting with different media. Incorporating large areas of blank paper, her reductive and distorted treatment of human anatomy emphasizes the two-dimensionality of the picture plane. This flattening effect is counterbalanced, however, by the dynamism of her jagged line and the figure’s monumentality.

Original Source

Maker/Artist: Nevelson, Louise
Classification: Drawing
Formatted Medium: Graphite on medium, white, smooth, wove paper
Medium: graphite, medium, white, smooth, wove, paper
Dimensions: sheet: 16 15/16 x 13 7/8 in. (43 x 35.2 cm)
Inscribed: On verso, inscribed in graphite: "S.S. Goldberg / 521 5th Ave / N.Y.C. / $25"
Departments: Contemporary Art
Accession Number: 78.277.4
Credit Line: Gift of Samuel Goldberg in memory of his parents, Sophie and Jacob Goldberg, and his brother, Hyman Goldberg
Exhibitions: 100 New Acquisitions: Prints, Drawings and Photographs, Fine Lines: American Drawings from the Brooklyn Museum, The Second Dimension: Twentieth-Century Sculptors' Drawings from The Brooklyn Museum
Museum Location: This item is not on view
Dominant Colors