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View this post on Instagram “Being Jewish and coming from Maine was no picnic,” said Louise Berliawsky Nevelson, who sold nothing from her first one-woman show in 1940 and burned the collection in an empty lot because there was no room for the works in her studio. “My parents emigrated from Russia when I was five. They were lucky to bring me at all, without a birth certificate. We moved to Rockland, Maine, and all I knew was that the date I was born depended on a certain Jewish holiday. A relative in Rockland gave me the birthday of October 16, corresponding to the holiday. Years later in New York, I got interested in astrology and went to a synagogue where they said September 23 was my birthday. Being born in Russia and not knowing the right date wasn’t a good beginning for astrology...I was born, I think, with a philosophy. I remember when I was six years old at play recess in school. One girl was taking advantage of another. So I went up to the girl who was being bullied to reassure her that she didn’t have to be conned. And she wasn’t even a friend of mine. At six years old you don’t battle for people unless you’re born with it. It’s like an egg; you can scramble it, soft-boil it, hard-boil it, even devil it. But it is an egg. The ingredient of an egg is an egg...Everything I do more or less comes from the center of my being. I won’t let someone superimpose on me. Who’s more important to one’s life than one’s self? Sometimes you have to turn around the things you are taught. For example, you have to be humble and you’ll inherit the earth. I don’t believe that. Unless that is your choice and you understand it. If it’s superimposed, you are not recognizing your total being...My work is the mirror of my consciousness. In my own work, I think there is a beyondness, some call it mystery. It contains the awareness of love, or sorrow, all the human emotions. Almost everyday we live a world. The dawn comes, dusk falls. Some people call it a day. In my world, it is an eternity.” #artnews #1974 #jewishmaine #louisenevelson #45yearsago @farnsworthmuseum A post shared by Documenting Maine Jewry (@mainejewishhistory) on Apr 23, 2019 at 8:26am PDT
“Being Jewish and coming from Maine was no picnic,” said Louise Berliawsky Nevelson, who sold nothing from her first one-woman show in 1940 and burned the collection in an empty lot because there was no room for the works in her studio. “My parents emigrated from Russia when I was five. They were lucky to bring me at all, without a birth certificate. We moved to Rockland, Maine, and all I knew was that the date I was born depended on a certain Jewish holiday. A relative in Rockland gave me the birthday of October 16, corresponding to the holiday. Years later in New York, I got interested in astrology and went to a synagogue where they said September 23 was my birthday. Being born in Russia and not knowing the right date wasn’t a good beginning for astrology...I was born, I think, with a philosophy. I remember when I was six years old at play recess in school. One girl was taking advantage of another. So I went up to the girl who was being bullied to reassure her that she didn’t have to be conned. And she wasn’t even a friend of mine. At six years old you don’t battle for people unless you’re born with it. It’s like an egg; you can scramble it, soft-boil it, hard-boil it, even devil it. But it is an egg. The ingredient of an egg is an egg...Everything I do more or less comes from the center of my being. I won’t let someone superimpose on me. Who’s more important to one’s life than one’s self? Sometimes you have to turn around the things you are taught. For example, you have to be humble and you’ll inherit the earth. I don’t believe that. Unless that is your choice and you understand it. If it’s superimposed, you are not recognizing your total being...My work is the mirror of my consciousness. In my own work, I think there is a beyondness, some call it mystery. It contains the awareness of love, or sorrow, all the human emotions. Almost everyday we live a world. The dawn comes, dusk falls. Some people call it a day. In my world, it is an eternity.” #artnews #1974 #jewishmaine #louisenevelson #45yearsago @farnsworthmuseum
A post shared by Documenting Maine Jewry (@mainejewishhistory) on Apr 23, 2019 at 8:26am PDT