002

002

PRIMAVERAVERANO

2010

NDICE

EDITORIAL

AMPLIACIN

Entregas
Sofia Hernndez Chong Cuy TK

Fjate en esto!
Jos Castillo entrevista a
Teodoro Gonzlez de Len

AYER

TK

La barriga del pichn

al descubierto
Daniela Prez

TK

Pasaje interrumpido

TK

Identidades en el tiempo

TK

COLABORACIN

Conexiones Tamayo
Monika Zukowska

HOY
MICROHISTORIAS Y
MACROMUNDOS

Un lugar fuera de la historia

TK
Magal Arriola

TK

DE LA OFICINA
DE REGISTRO

Prstamos Tamayo
Liliana Martnez

TK

ACERCAMIENTOS AL ACERVO

La marquesa sali a las cinco,

dej atrs la biblioteca vaca...
TK
Daniela Prez
PROYECTO ESPECIAL

Se solicitan mujeres cantantes

mayores de 35 aos
TK
Magnolia de la Garza
PROYECTO ESPECIAL

Por todo lo que vale

mi trabajo con Tino Sehgal
Louise Hjer

TK

VISITA
SIEMPRE

Cartelera

Nueva York desde la

terraza mexicana
Gabriela Camacho

Publicaciones del
Museo Tamayo

TK

El silencio de las formas:

dos desnudos de Irving Penn
TK
Juan Carlos Pereda
Las mquinas de tiempo
de Louise Nevelson
Carmen Cebreros

VOLUMEN

De gente poseda por

rocolas y otras historias
Sofa Hernndez Chong Cuy
y Daniela Prez conversan
TK
con Daniel Guzmn

TK

COMPRA
TK

SMATE
SUMA 2010

SUMA 2010

TK

PREMIO SUM-ARTE 2010:

Mrgara Garza Sada

TK

TK

La exteriorizacin encerrada
de Francis Bacon
TK
Magnolia de la Garza

ENTRETANTO

MAANA

Lilia Carrillo, Sin ttulo, 1973

TK
Mara Minera

VIAJA CON TAMAYO

lbum: Excursin a Puebla

con Carlos Amorales

TK

BIOS
DILOGOS

Toma de conciencia
Tania Ragasol entrevista
a Alberto Kalach

Artistas y expositores
Colaboradores
TK

TK

CONTENTS

EDITORIAL

MEANWHILE

ALWAYS

Deliveries
Sofia Hernndez Chong Cuy TK

VOLUME

New York from the

Mexican Terrace
Gabriela Camacho

TK

The Silence of Forms:

Two Nudes by Irving Penn
Juan Carlos Pereda

TK

Louise Nevelsons Time

Machines
Carmen Cebreros

TK

Exteriorization Enclosed
Magnolia de la Garza

TK

Lilia Carrillo, Untitled, 1973

Mara Minera

TK

People Possessed by
Jukeboxes and Other Stories
Sofa Hernndez Chong Cuy
and Daniela Prez interview
TK
Daniel Guzmn

TODAY
MINOR HISTORIES,
LARGER WORLDS

A Place Out of History

Magal Arriola

DIALOGUES
TK

ACTIVATING
THE COLLECTION

The marquise went out

at five, leaving the empty
library behind
Daniela Prez

Environmental Awareness
Tania Ragasol interviews
Alberto Kalach

TK

EXPANSION

Take a look at this!

Jose Castilo interviews Teodoro
TK
Gonzlez de Len
TK
COLABORATION

SPECIAL PROJECT

Wanted: Female Singers

over Thirty-Five
Magnolia de la Garza

Tamayo Connections
Monika Zukowska
TK

SPECIAL PROJECT

For all its worth

my work with Tino Sehgal
Louise Hjer

TK

TK

YESTERDAY

The Belly of a Dove Exposed

TK
Daniela Prez
Identities in Time

TK

Interrupted Passage

TK

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LAS MQUINAS DE TIEMPO DE LOUISE NEVELSON

136

Las mquinas de tiempo de

Louise Nevelson
Carmen Cebreros
Voici des sacs papier plein dair
des bibliothques ambulantes
danachortes
des muscles cocons
des cases dbordantes de cossons
des casiers pyramides maniables
Jean Arp, Pome (fragmento), 1961
Una sustanciosa parte de la historia del arte moderno est
forjada en la construccin de mitos, en la configuracin
de argumentos sobre el temple y la historia personal de el
o la artista, es decir, en lo que se ha denominado persona:
una especie de estrategia mercadotcnica, dicho esto no en
trminos del xito de las obras en el mercado artstico, sino
del impacto y poder de seduccin que un cierto rasgo de la
biografa de los autores no pocas veces ficcional puede
generar en el pblico. Valga mencionar que esta estrategia
puede llegar a diezmar la apreciacin de la produccin
artstica o velarla, para bien o para mal.
Ni Rufino Tamayo, ni la artista que ocupa este texto,
Louise Nevelson,1 son precisamente excepcin de haber
recurrido y sido vctimas (es difcil diferenciar dnde
inicia y dnde termina lo uno o lo otro) de esta estrategia
basada, ni ms ni menos, que en la discursividad de la
excepcionalidad innata. Olivier Debroise dedica la primera
parte de su ensayo De lo moderno a lo internacional: los
retos del arte mexicano2 a dar cuenta de cmo Tamayo
construy su imagen de indgena (que aos ms tarde

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LOUISE NEVELSONS TIME MACHINES

137

Louise Nevelsons Time

Machines
Carmen Cebreros
Voici des sacs papier plein dair
des bibliothques ambulantes
danachortes
des muscles cocons
des cases dbordantes de cossons
des casiers pyramides maniables
Jean Arp, Pome (excerpt), 1961
A substantial part of the history of modern art is based on
the construction of myths, on the creation of stories about
the character and personal history of the artist, that is to
say, about his or her persona: a kind of marketing strategy
that is not so much about the success of the artists works
on the market, but rather about the impact and the power
of seduction that certain details of his or her (often fictional)
biography can have on the public. We should mention
that this strategy can undermine or muddle a viewers
appreciation of a body of work, for better or for worse.
Neither Rufino Tamayo, nor the artist this text
concerns, Louise Nevelson,1 are exceptions to this, since
they resorted to this strategyor were victims of it: it
is hard to tell to what extent it was deliberatebased
on nothing more nor less than the discourse of innate
exceptionality. Olivier Debroise devotes the first part of
his essay entitled De lo moderno a lo internacional: los
retos del arte mexicano2 to demonstrating how Rufino
Tamayo constructed his image as an underprivileged
indigenous orphan whose parents had been smallholder

SIEMPRE

LAS MQUINAS DE TIEMPO DE LOUISE NEVELSON

138

Louise Nevelson
ARS, NY. Vista de la
instalacin Dawn's Wedding
Feast, 1959 en The Jewish
Museum, Nueva York.
Foto: David Heald
Cortesa: The Jewish
Museum, Nueva York/ Art
Resource, NY.

sustituy por la de mestizo), campesino, hurfano, de

extraccin humilde aunque vivi desde su temprana
adolescencia en la Ciudad de Mxico, bajo la tutela de una
ta comerciante de clase media, y su padre no muri sino
hasta 1967, aunque Tamayo mantuvo una distante relacin
con l y decidi omitir su apellido cuyo ser indgena
emerga de manera natural y automtica en su pintura.
Louise Nevelson originaria de Kiev, al igual que tantos
otros judos amenazados de ser expulsados de los territorios
del imperio ruso hacia finales del siglo XIX, viaj en 1904
con su madre y cuatro hermanos su padre viaj meses
antes para asentarse hacia Rockland, Maine, un poblado
con pocos habitantes (menos an de origen judo) al norte
de la costa este de Estados Unidos. La localidad propici
una sensacin claustrofbica y una gran expectativa en
ella, lo que motiv que aceptara unirse en matrimonio
con un comerciante naviero radicado en Nueva York.
Nevelson se refera constantemente a que su vida contaba
con un programa (blueprint) trazado desde antes de su
nacimiento, que ella no tuvo ms remedio que seguir. Lo
que estoy diciendo es que no me convert en nada, ya era
una artista;3 en ello consista ese programa-destino que
mencion una y otra vez. Ella emple este un argumento

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LOUISE NEVELSONS TIME MACHINES

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Louise Nevelson
Pared del cielo, 1974 /
Madera ensamblada y
pintada / 241 142.5
54 cm / Coleccin Museo
Tamayo, INBA-Conaculta

farmersalthough he lived in Mexico City since his early

teens under the care of an aunt who was a middle-class
businesswoman; moreover, though Tamayo was somewhat
estranged from his father and did not use his last name, the
latter did not die before 1967. Allegedly, this indigenous
self of Tamayos emerged naturally and automatically in
his painting (and years later, he traded this identity for that
of a mestizo).
Kiev-native Louise Nevelson, like many other Jews,
was threatened with exile from imperial Russia in the late
nineteenth century. She traveled with her mother and four
siblingsher father had gone ahead months earlierto
Rockland, a small town in Maine (with an even smaller
Jewish community) on the United States northeastern coast.
The towns smallness made Nevelson feel claustrophobic
and she looked for a way to leave, which led her to accept
the marriage proposal of a cargo-shipping business man
based in New York City. Nevelson constantly referred to
her life having a blueprint, which had been sketched out

SIEMPRE

LAS MQUINAS DE TIEMPO DE LOUISE NEVELSON

140

para justificar su renuncia a la vida domstica y familiar y,

por otro lado, para exaltar su condicin de artista nata.
Louise vivi toda su vida en Nueva York, excepto por
una breve temporada despus de haberse separado de su
marido, en la que decidi viajar a Munich para estudiar
bajo la tutora de Hans Hoffmann. Como para muchos
otros artistas e intelectuales,4 Nueva York se convirti en
un mundo aparte donde confluan gente, ideas, nimos
y fragancias de muchas otras ciudades. Adems de
estudiar en la Art Students League, Nevelson se integr a
las clases y actividades de otros artistas, y estudi canto,
arte dramtico y danza moderna en distintas fases de su
vida. En varias entrevistas, la artista destac lo importante
que resultaba para ella el control y conocimiento del cuerpo
incluso en el trabajo escultrico. En Nueva York, Nevelson
entabl amistad con otros creadores como el msico John
Cage y su pareja el coregrafo Merce Cunningham, y con el
dramaturgo Edward Albee, quien en 2002 escribi Occupant,
un guin sobre una entrevista pstuma entre un periodista
y la escultora, con el que rinde homenaje al tiempo que
desentraa algunos episodios en la vida de la artista. En
un panel de discusin en el que participaron los propios
Cunningham y Albee, celebrado en 2007 a raz de una
importante retrospectiva sobre esta escultora en el Jewish
Museum de Nueva York,5 el dramaturgo relata que Nevelson
era sumamente reticente a hablar sobre artistas que la
hubieran influido o al menos que le parecieran interesantes.
Sin embargo, existen tres momentos o antecedentes
determinantes para su carrera como artista y como
escultora. El padre de Nevelson manejaba un depsito
de madera de segunda mano en Rockland, que en cierta
medida se convirti en su paisaje y ambiente inmediatos.
En 1932, Louise conoci a Diego Rivera a travs de una de
sus compaeras de la Art Students League, y se integr a
su grupo de asistentes para la realizacin de los murales
del Rockefeller Center, Rand School y New Workers

ALWAYS

LOUISE NEVELSONS TIME MACHINES

141

before she was born, and which she had no choice but to
follow. What Im saying is I that did not become anything,
I was an artist.3 This was her lifes blueprint or destiny
something she mentioned time and again and used as an
argument to justify her rejection of a domestic or family
life, on the one hand, and to extol her condition as an innate
artist on the other.
Nevelson lived in New York City for the rest of her life,
except for a brief period in Munich, where she went to study
under Hans Hoffmann after she had separated from her
husband. For many artists and intellectuals,4 New York City
had become a world of its own: a meeting point for people,
ideas, temperaments and fragrances from many other
cities. In addition to studying at the Art Students League
of New York, Nevelson took part in other artists classes
and activities, and studied singing, acting and modern
dance at different periods of her life. In several interviews,
she points out how important it was for her to control and
be aware of her body, even in doing sculptural work. In
New York City, Nevelson became friends with several
artists: musician John Cage, his partner, choreographer
Merce Cunningham, and playwright Edward Albee, who
in 2002 wrote the script Occupant, concerning a reporters
posthumous interview with Nevelson, paying homage to her
while disentangling certain chapters of her life. In a panel
discussion featuring Cunningham and Albee that took place
in 2007 as part of an important retrospective of Nevelsons
work at the Jewish Museum in New York,5 the playwright
noted how obstinately reluctant Nevelson was to talk about
artists who had influenced her, or at least, that she found
interesting.
Nonetheless, we can point out three decisive moments
or antecedents in Nevelsons career as an artist and
sculptor. Her father managed a second-hand lumberyard in
Rockland that, to an extent, became Nevelsons immediate
context and landscape of reference. In 1932, she met Diego

SIEMPRE

LAS MQUINAS DE TIEMPO DE LOUISE NEVELSON

142

School. Su trabajo consista en reproducir a escala y copiar

fielmente los bocetos de Rivera, as como mezclar pigmentos
y aplicar veladuras. Ella estaba convencida de que no
haba vida en un arte que carece de inmediatez; pero si
bien la experiencia dentro de la pintura mural le result
decepcionante, s le concedi un particular sentido de la
escala. Adems en casa de Kahlo y Rivera se inici en el
arte prehispnico, en el que profundiz hacia la dcada de
los cincuenta en una serie de viajes que hizo a las zonas
arqueolgicas del sureste mexicano y Guatemala.
La escultura Pared del cielo (1974), que forma parte
de la coleccin del Museo Tamayo, pertenece al grupo de
obras ms ampliamente desarrollado por Nevelson. Estas
esculturas son gabinetes hechos a base de cajones de
madera ensamblados, los cuales configuran una retcula,
dentro de cuyos nichos coexisten rtmicamente un conjunto
de retazos de objetos y muebles de madera, en este caso:
marcos de respaldos de sillas, un pino de boliche, molduras
Chippendale, baldes cilndricos y trozos de cimbra. Estos
conjuntos estn esmaltados, generalmente en color negro,
para unificar el volumen, concentrar la atencin en las
mltiples formas y su riguroso ordenamiento, y para
cancelar la sensacin de superficie y textura. Ejemplos
destacados de este tipo de esculturas son Sky Cathedral
(1958), de la coleccin del MoMA y Homage to 6,000,000 I
(1964), del Museo de la Ciudad de Osaka, Japn.
Pared del cielo es una escultura pequea y tarda
dentro de este grupo. No es una pieza de museo
si aplicramos un canon imaginario y ms bien
contemporneo, al respecto. Adems es difcil rastrear
en qu momento fue que Tamayo la adquiri6 y si pensaba
en esta pieza como parte de la coleccin del museo o de su
coleccin particular, ya que Fernando Gamboa (primer
director del museo) ingresaba obras de la casa de Tamayo
a la institucin sin demasiado rigor. Tamayo pretenda
conformar una coleccin histrico-enciclopdica7 sobre el

ALWAYS

LOUISE NEVELSONS TIME MACHINES

143

Rivera through one of her friends at the Art Students

League, and joined the crew of assistants employed in the
making of Riveras murals at Rockefeller Center, the Rand
School of Social Science and the New Workers School. Her
work consisted in scaling up and faithfully tracing Riveras
drawings, as well as mixing pigments and applying
washes. She was convinced that there was no life in an art
that has no immediacy; though she was disappointed by
her experience of mural painting, it did provide her with an
acute sense of scale. Moreover, she was introduced to preHispanic art at Kahlo and Riveras house, and continued
her exploration of it over the 1950s in a series of trips to
archaeological sites in southeastern Mexico and Guatemala.
Sky Wall (1974), a sculpture that belongs to the
Museo Tamayos collection, forms part of Nevelsons most
extensively developed series of works. These sculptures
are cabinets made of assembled wood shelves or boxes
that form a grid, and whose compartments contain pieces
of wood furniture and objects, in this case, the backs of
chairs, a bowling pin, Chippendale moldings, cylinders
and pieces of formwork, following a rhythmic distribution.
These assemblages are enamel-painted, usually in black, in
order to unify the volume, to focus viewers attention on the
various shapes and their strict ordering, and to neutralize
impressions of surface or texture. Notable examples of these
kind of sculptures are Sky Cathedral (1958) in the MoMA
collection, and Homage to 6 000 000 I (1964) at the Osaka
City Museum in Japan.
Sky Wall is a small-scale sculpture and a late addition
to the series. It is not a museum piecejudging it from
a notional and more contemporary standard. Moreover, it
is hard to track down when exactly Tamayo acquired the
artwork,6 or whether he wanted it for his private collection
or that of the museum, since the museums first director,
Fernando Gamboa, was rather lax about bringing pieces
from Tamayos home to the institution. Tamayo wanted to

SIEMPRE

LAS MQUINAS DE TIEMPO DE LOUISE NEVELSON

144

arte moderno, pero en algunos casos tuvo que conformarse

con palomear una lista de autores sin poder hacer una
seleccin exhaustiva, ni adquirir piezas cuyos valores se
haban elevado notablemente.
Las piezas ms ambiciosas y destacadas de Nevelson
constituyen ambientes totales a la manera del Merzbau
(1933) de Kurt Schwitters; por ejemplo Mrs. Ns Palace
(1964-1977) y Dawns Wedding Feast (1959), exhibida por
primera vez en Sixteen Americans,8 que al no haber sido
comercializada como una sola pieza, qued desmembrada
en doce colecciones distintas. En 2007 el Jewish Museum
recuper cada fragmento y la pieza fue re-ensamblada en
su totalidad.
En los setentas empez a proyectar esculturas
monumentales en acero para espacios abiertos. Utiliz el
famoso acero COR-TEN empleado en la industria naval,
ferroviaria, en puentes y posteriormente en fachadas
arquitectnicas muy utilizado por los artistas en esa
dcada por ser un material resistente a la corrosin, pues
reacciona ante la humedad del ambiente produciendo una
capa rojiza que impide que la oxidacin penetre el material.
Richard Serra es probablemente su mayor exponente,
pero pareciera que el uso del acero impuso una tendencia,
ya que varios artistas muchos que no eran escultores,
como el propio Tamayo no resistieron la curiosidad
de trasladar y escalar sus ideas hacia este ingenieril
y grandilocuente material (en el caso de Nevelson y de
Tamayo con resultados ms bien desafortunados.)
Cuando Jean Arp vio por primera vez el trabajo de
esta escultora en el MoMA (coincidentemente con su propia
retrospectiva) qued pasmado ante su potencia, y aos ms
tarde escribi un poema sobre este impresionante encuentro
con las esculturas.9
Estas obras parecen haber provisto a la ciencia
ficcin con la imagen de la mquina del tiempo, armada
con cachivaches cuya temporalidad se borra y acopla,

ALWAYS

LOUISE NEVELSONS TIME MACHINES

145

create a historical-encyclopedic7 collection of modern art,

but in some cases, he had to satisfy himself with checking
off a list of artists names, without being able to undertake
a thorough selection or purchase pieces that had become too
costly.
Nevelsons most ambitious and remarkable artworks
constitute total environments like Kurt Schwitterss
Merzbau (1933): for instance, Mrs. Ns Palace (1964-1977)
and Dawns Wedding Feast (1959), which was exhibited for
the first time in Sixteen Americans,8 but not subsequently
put on the market as a single work, and hence, broken up
in twelve different collections. In 2007, the Jewish Museum
recovered the fragments and reassembled the work as a
whole.
In the 1970s, Nevelson began designing monumental
outdoor steel sculptures. She used weathering steel,
better known by its brand name, COR-TEN, and used in
structural applications (ships, railways, bridges) and later
in architecture. Contemporary artists at the time also often
employed this type of steel because, when exposed to the
weather, it forms a stable rust-like coating that makes it
resistant to further atmospheric corrosion. Richard Serra
is probably its best-known advocate, but it seems like this
alloy established a tendency, as various artistsmany of
whom, like Tamayo, were not sculptorsdid not resist the
temptation of transposing their ideas and inflating their
dimensions to incorporate this grandiose material from the
world of engineering (in Nevelsons and Tamayos case,
with rather unfortunate results).
When Jean Arp saw Nevelsons work for the first time
at the MoMA (at the same time as his own retrospective),
he was overwhelmed by its intensity, and years later, wrote
a poem about the sculptures that had made such a deep
impression on him.9
These works seem to have given science fiction the
image of the time machine, assembled with odds and ends

SIEMPRE

LAS MQUINAS DE TIEMPO DE LOUISE NEVELSON

146

aunque el tiempo justamente sea un ingrediente en su

produccin, ms alqumica que mecnica. La ergonoma
de los objetos se disuelve en la clasificacin de las formas
y las estructuras, mitad meldicas y mitad hipnticas, que
imantan la presencia de quien las observa.
Si Louise Nevelson naci siendo artista o aprendi a
serlo, no es relevante. Su copiosa produccin desarrollada
de manera implacable e imparable a lo largo de ms de
cincuenta aos y hasta el ltimo momento de su vida es
evidencia ms que suficiente sobre su condicin.
La autora agradece especialmente a Heather Palmer, a cargo del rea de
investigacin y archivos de The Pace Gallery (NY) por haber proporcionado
informacin y referencias para la realizacin de este artculo.
1. Kiev, 1899 - Nueva York, 1988.
2. Debroise, Olivier (2005) De lo moderno a lo internacional: los retos del arte
mexicano en Arte del siglo XX. Coleccin Internacional Museo Rufino Tamayo,
catlogo de la exposicin presentada en la Fundacin Proa, Buenos Aires:
Fundacin Proa, 77-81.
3. Nevelson, Louise (1971) Prologue en Glimcher, Arnold B. Louise Nevelson,
Nueva York/Washington: Praeger Publishers, 19.
4. El propio Tamayo vivi en varias temporadas en Nueva York: algunos meses
en 1926 y 1928, y de 1936 a 1949.
5. The Sculpture of Louise Nevelson: Constructing a Legend, The Jewish
Museum, Nueva York, mayo 5 septiembre 16, 2007.
6. La pieza fue vendida por la Pace Gallery de Nueva York, que hasta la fecha
maneja la obra de esta artista, pero no es posible identificar si la compra se hizo
directamente o si Tamayo la adquiri por alguna otra va posteriormente.
7. Pereda, Juan Carlos (2010) La Coleccin en Rufino, No. 1, Mxico: Museo de
Arte Rufino Tamayo, 84.
8. Museum of Modern Art, Nueva York, 1959.
9. Ver epgrafe.

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LOUISE NEVELSONS TIME MACHINES

147

whose temporality is blurred and conjoined, although time

happens to be a main ingredient in their (more alchemical
than mechanical) fabrication. The objects ergonomics
dissolves in the classification of the shapes and structures,
which are somewhat melodic and somewhat hypnotic, and
which magnetize the attention of viewers.
Whether Louise Nevelson was a born artist or learned
to become one seems irrelevant at this point. Her extensive
body of work, developed relentlessly and continuously over
a span of fifty years until the day of her death, provides
more than enough evidence about her condition.

Translated by Richard Moszka.

I would especially like to thank Heather Palmer, the head of the research and
archives department at the Pace Gallery in New York, for having provided
information and references for this article.
1. Kiev, 1899New York, 1988.
2. Olivier Debroise De lo moderno a lo internacional: los retos del arte
mexicano in Arte del siglo XX. Coleccin Internacional Museo Rufino Tamayo,
catalogue of the exhibition hosted by Fundacin Proa Buenos Aires: Fundacin
Proa, 2005, 77-81.
3. Louise Nevelson, Prologue in Arnold B. Glimcher, Louise Nevelson, New
York/Washington: Praeger Publishers, 1971, 19.
4. Tamayo also lived in New York City on several occasions: for a few months in
1926 and 1928, and then continuously from 1936 to 1949.
5. The Sculpture of Louise Nevelson: Constructing a Legend, Jewish Museum,
New York, May 5September 16, 2007.
6. The piece was sold by the Pace Gallery in New York; though the gallery
continues to manage Nevelsons work to this day, it could not verify whether
Tamayo had bought the piece directly from them or acquired it subsequently
through other channels.
7. Juan Carlos Pereda, La coleccin in Rufino #1 (Mexico City: Museo de Arte
Rufino Tamayo, 2010), 84.
8. Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1959.
9. See epigraph.