Louise Nevelson - Legacy

Legacy

A sculpture garden, Louise Nevelson Plaza (40°42′27″N 74°00′29″W / 40.7076°N 74.0080°W / 40.7076; -74.0080), is located in downtown New York City and features a collection of works by Nevelson. Nevelson donated her papers in several installments from 1966 to 1979. They are fully digitized and in the collection of the Archives of American Art. The Farnsworth Art Museum, in Nevelson's childhood home of Rockland, Maine, houses the second largest collection of her works, including jewelry she designed. In 2000, the United States Postal Service released a series of commemorative postage stamps in Nevelson's honor. The following year, friend and playwright Edward Albee wrote the play Occupant as a homage to the sculptor. The show opened in New York in 2002 with Anne Bancroft playing Nevelson, but it never moved beyond previews owing to Bancroft's illness. Nevelson's distinct and eccentric image has been documented by photographers such as Robert Mapplethorpe, Richard Avedon, Hans Namuth and Pedro E. Guerrero. Nevelson has a place setting in Judy Chicago's 1974–1979 masterpiece The Dinner Party.

Upon Nevelson's death her estate was worth at least $100 million. Her son, Mike Nevelson, removed 36 sculptures from her house. Documentation showed that Nevelson had bequeathed these works, worth millions, to her friend and assistant of 25 years Diana MacKown, yet Mike Nevelson claimed otherwise. Proceedings began about the estate and will, which Mike Nevelson claimed did not mention MacKown. There was talk of a potential palimony case, but despite public speculation that the two women were lovers, MacKown maintained that she had never had a sexual relationship with Nevelson, as did Mike Nevelson.