LOUISE NEVELSON: MRS. N'S PALACE

Set in the midst of New York City’s transformation into the center of the Western art world, this film tells the story of how Louise Berliawsky—a Russian Jewish immigrant raised in Rockland, Maine—becomes Louise Nevelson, one of the most famous American artists of her day. Braving rejection, poverty, and sexist discrimination for the first twenty-five years of her career, Nevelson develops a unique visual language with her enormous wall assemblages made entirely from scavenged wood. She ultimately succeeds on her own terms—but not until she is in her mid-fifties. Known as much for her otherworldly black sculptural environments as for her inimitable personal style—impossibly long false eyelashes, chinchilla furs, and lavishly embroidered kaftans—Nevelson is featured in Vogue magazine and interviewed on TV. Her work is collected by hundreds of museums, and her public sculptures are commissioned by cities all over the world. Yet after her death in 1988, Nevelson is nearly forgotten.