Architects of Being Exhibition Catalog

This comprehensive catalog explores the remarkable parallel journeys of Louise Nevelson and Esphyr Slobodkina, two pioneering abstract artists born within a decade of each other in Eastern Europe. Fleeing Jewish persecution and political upheaval, both women independently migrated to New York during the 1920s, where they navigated the economic hardships of the Great Depression while forging revolutionary artistic practices. Unbound by conventional artistic boundaries, they fearlessly embraced abstraction at a time when the art world remained skeptical of such radical approaches. Their shared experiences of unconventional personal lives and relentless artistic innovation reveal two visionary figures who fundamentally reshaped modern sculpture and mixed media. Architects of Being celebrates their audacious legacies and enduring influence on contemporary art.

Grounded in Louise Nevelson's profound observation that “there’s something very important about character: character is structure. Character is the architecture of the being” this catalog investigates the intrinsic relationship between artistic identity and creative expression. Architects of Being examines how two visionary modernists—Nevelson and Slobodkina—constructed their artistic practices through deliberate self-fashioning and boundary-breaking experimentation across multiple media. This meticulously researched and lavishly illustrated volume traces their pioneering approaches to dissolving categorical distinctions between sculpture, painting, and assemblage, methodologies that anticipated contemporary artistic practice. By analyzing the structural principles underlying their work, the catalog reveals how these artists' commitment to formal innovation and conceptual rigor established foundational models for interdisciplinary creativity that continue to resonate throughout the art world.