Hear the Curator

Atmosphere and Environment X, by Louise Nevelson, is a two-dimensional, architectonic screen that achieves its magic through the play of natural light over its geometric surface. Nevelson had a penchant for the rectilinear format, in which shapes and patterns, rhythms and accents repeat and can be read in a narrative fashion. Nevelson’s work was inspired by her collections of African art and American farm tools as well as by her interest in pre-Columbian art and architecture; one also finds the influence of Byzantine art and its Russian derivatives. The artist was over fifty when she began to create the extraordinary shadow box reliefs and walls of wood that constitute her masterworks. She was nearly seventy when she undertook this Princeton commission, her first monumental outdoor sculpture in Cor-Ten steel.