Louise Nevelson (1899-1988), The Endless Column, 1969-85. Painted found wood, left: 109⁄ x 22 x 9⁄ in.

, center: 128⁄ x 59⁄ x 11 in.,

right: 114/ x 21½ x 5¼ in. Collection of the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine. Bequest of Nathan Berliawsky, 1980.35.30.
© 2022 Estate of Louise Nevelson / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Feast. According to the National
Museum of Women in the Arts, Dawn’s
Wedding Feast’s abstract wood sculptures
“represented a bride and groom, their
guests, a wedding chest, pillow, and cake,
and architectural elements suggesting the
walls and columns of chapels.” Rather
than black, the artist chose to paint the
assemblage in white.
“For me, the black contains the
silhouette, the essence of the universe,”
Nevelson said. “But the whites move
out a little bit into outer space with
more freedom.”
The various sculptures composing
Dawn’s Wedding Feast were subsequently
dispersed into many collections. A
singular column cannot create the
full immersive experience Nevelson
intended. So the Farnsworth devised
a workaround for Dawn to Dusk: they
commissioned a full-size photograph
of the original installation, with Dawn
Column I on view as well. “We wanted
to give audiences a context for the
work,” McAvoy says.
Included in the exhibition is a black
wall assemblage with very special ties to
the Farnsworth. Nevelson first made The
Endless Column in 1969. At the time, it
consisted of three rows of boxes forming
a tall rectangle. The piece was a chance
for Nevelson to explore what she called
“musical” variations formed by the
shadows in the piece. Decades later
when Nevelson was preparing the piece
for her 1985 show at the Farnsworth,
she added two rows of boxes at the top
and vertical assemblages on either side
to bookend the central piece. It was not
unusual for Nevelson to transform her
works after their initial incarnation. The
Endless Column invites viewers to ponder
the ways in which it is now site-specific.
Louise Nevelson was in her 60s when
her career really took off . She produced
numerous public art sculptures, and
even has a plaza named after her in

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