Louise Nevelson's Sculptures In The Newly Renovated Plaza Named After The Artist

In Manhattan's Financial District, the Louise Nevelson Plaza has been renovated and the towering steel sculptures by Louise Nevelson have been reinstalled.  The site-specific sculptures pictured above are called “Shadows and Flags.” Nevelson created the black-painted sculptures from scraps of Cor-Ten steel from a foundry in Connecticut. Nevelson was the first woman in the United States to become famous for her public art. She often improvised her artwork, testing the way found materials could fit together, said Maria Nevelson, Louise’s 50-year-old granddaughter.

“The scale and the material is masculine, in a way,” said Maria Nevelson, who started the Louise Nevelson Foundation in Philadelphia. “It’s impressive to see a woman doing that, especially back then.”

The plaza was the first public space in New York named after an artist, in honor of Nevelson’s pioneering creativity, the city said. Nevelson died in 1988, at the age of 88. Located in Manhattan's Financial District, the triangular plaza is bounded by Liberty St., Wiliam St. and Maiden Lane.

"For Roebling" By Mark di Suvero

On exhibit at the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden at the Museum of Modern Art is a steel sculpture called "For Roebling" (1971), created by Marco Polo "Mark" di Suvero. Mark di Suvero is an American abstract expressionist sculptor born in Shanghai, China in1933 to Italian expatriates. He immigrated to San Francisco, California in 1942 with his family. From 1953 to 1957, he attended the University of California, Berkeley to study Philosophy. He later moved to New York City where he was surrounded by an explosion of Abstract Expressionism. While working in construction, he was critically injured in an  accident. He changed his career and focused all his attention on sculpture. He currently lives in New York City.