Louise Nevelson (1899 - 1988) was born in Kiev, Russia and immigrated to Rockland, Maine at the age of six. Following her marriage in 1920, Nevelson moved to New York City where she later studied at the Art Students League (1929-30) under the tutelage of Kenneth Hayes Miller. She continued her education by studying with Hans Hoffman in Munich and working as an assistant to Diego Rivera prior to participating in her first group exhibition organized by the Secession Gallery at the Brooklyn Museum in 1935. As a part of the Works Progress Administration, Nevelson taught art at the Education Alliance School of Art (NY) and received her first solo exhibition at the Nierendorf Gallery in New York City. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Nevelson worked at the Sculpture Center (NY) and at Atelier 17; it was during the mid-Fifties that she produced her first series of black wood landscape sculptures. Shortly thereafter, three New York City museums acquired her work: the Whitney Museum of American Art purchased Black Majesty (1956), The Brooklyn Museum purchased First Personage (1957), and The Museum of Modern Art purchased Sky Cathedral (1958). In 1967, the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, NY) organized Nevelson's first retrospective, and her work has been the subject of over 135 solo exhibitions including a posthumous 1994 retrospective organized by the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome. During the 1970s and early 1980s, Nevelson was occupied with numerous public commissions and the production of large-scale sculpture and monumental environments often using Cor-Ten steel. Invited to participate in an international selection of group shows, Nevelson's work appeared in the Pittsburgh International Exhibition at the Carnegie Institute (1958, 1961, 1964, 1970), the Venice Biennale (1962, 1976), Expo 1970 in Osaka, Japan, Documenta III in Kassel (1964), the 1973 Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Spoleto Festival (1982-83), among others.

Throughout her career, Nevelson held numerous leadership positions within the arts community, including: President of the Artist's Equity New York chapter (1957-9); two-time President of National Artist's Equity (1962, 1963); first Vice-President of the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors (1962); National Association of Women Artists member (1962); Sculptor's Guild member (1962); participant in the National Council on the Arts and Government, Washington, DC (1965); and election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York (1979). The recipient of many awards, Nevelson received honorary degrees from Western College for Women (Oxford, OH; 1966), Smith College (Northampton, MA; 1973), Columbia University (New York, NY; 1977), and Boston University (Boston, MA; 1978). In addition, institutions and organizations recognized Nevelson with prizes including: Grand Prize for work in the Art USA exhibition at the New York Coliseum (1959); the Logan Award for work shown in the 63rd American Exhibition from The Art Institute of Chicago (1960); the MacDowell Colony Medal (1969); the Brandeis University Creative Arts Award in Sculpture (1971); the Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture (1971); and the President's Medal of the Municipal Art Society of New York (1979).

Louise Nevelson's work can be found internationally in over eighty public museum, university, corporate, and municipal collections including: The Art Institute of Chicago; The Art Museum, Princeton University (Princeton, NJ); The Brooklyn Museum; The Corcoran Gallery of Art (Washington, DC); the William A. Farnsworth Library and Art Museum (Rockland, ME); the Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Torino (Turin, Italy); the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art (Tokyo, Japan); the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington, DC); the Israel Museum (Jerusalem, Israel); the Julliard School of Music at Lincoln Center (New York, NY); the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Humlebæk, Denmark); The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY); The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Montreal, Canada); the Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris, France); The Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY); the City of New York; the Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller (Otterlo, Netherlands); the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Edinburgh, Scotland); the City of Scottsdale, Arizona; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York, NY); the Storm King Art Center and Sculpture Park (Mountainville. NY); the Tate Gallery (London, England); the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, MN); and the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, NY).