Steve Linn
"Boxes of Dreams (Louise Nevelson)" sculpture portrait
2002

About the Item

Sandblasted carved glass, wood and bronze. Steve Linn describes himself as a documentary sculptor, conducting meticulous research on each of his selected subjects and choosing which references to interpret for the piece he then creates. “Boxes of Dreams” goes to the heart of the personality and force of “grand dame” of sculpture Louise Nevelson. Linn's portrait shows her as part of a collection of assembled found shapes like those she acquired from the scraps of wood shops in lower Manhattan and built into monumental walls of controlled power and elegance. Ms. Nevelson was a force of nature. A Jewish Russian immigrant, she came to the US in 1905 as a young child. Her father, Isaac, was a woodworker and it is thought that this influence played an important role in her predominant choice of material. Fashion conscious, Nevelson had a love of unique and original clothing so her outfits and headscarves made her a formidable visual presence. Nevelson got married young and it wasn’t until years after her divorce that she began to study art in earnest. She attended the Art Student’s League and was a student of Hans Hoffman and Chiam Gross. Although she exhibited regularly beginning in the 1940s, things were not easy as a female sculptor, and it wasn’t until she was 57 years old and joined the Martha Jackson Gallery that she became financially independent. "From the early 1970s to the mid 1980s," Linn recalls, "I saw [Nevelson] on a regular basis in the streets of SOHO in New York where we were neighbors. I must say, I was always too intimidated to speak to her. I made this piece for many reasons, first and foremost out of a deep respect for the work she created. In addition, we have a shared cultural heritage and our fathers were both woodworkers." Contact the gallery for information about purchasing, or to inquire about commissioning a custom documentary sculpture portrait! Steve Linn welcomes the opportunity to create commissions: this deeply humanist artist feels that each human being can reveal unique characteristics worth exploring with his mind and his hands. Steve Linn describes himself as a documentary sculptor, and indeed, his work rests on the meticulous research he conducts on each of his selected subjects and the interpretation of the references he chooses to develop for each one. Yet his definition would seem to leave out the intensity Linn puts into the materiality of the work. His range of preference is vast and often surprising, using wood, glass, bronze, other metals, and now even holograms to depict the clues he gives the viewer about the work and personality of his subject. He most often combines them all and his mastery of each craft is truly impressive. The subjects Linn chooses for his multi-faceted portraits are often visual artists and musicians he admires, but also sports legends, workmen, and craftsmen (and women). Each tableau contains one or several views of the face or torso, first painstakingly drawn and then most often carved from plate glass or cast from a ceramic original via the kiln-formed glass technique. Tools and objects we would easily associate with the person if known to us are added in a careful composition, but Linn does not stop there. His Portraits series, begun over 50 years ago, now includes more elaborate installations and invites the viewer more deeply into the influences and relationships -- webs that creative humans weave.

Creator:

Steve Linn

Creation Year:

2002

Dimensions:

Height: 43 in (109.22 cm)Width: 30 in (76.2 cm)Depth: 7 in (17.78 cm)

Medium:

Bronze,Glass,Wood,Mixed Media

Movement & Style:

Contemporary

Period:

2000-2009