Architects of Being: Louise Nevelson and Esphyr Slobodkina

Architects of Being alludes to the architectural spirits of Louise Nevelson and Esphyr Slobodkina, brought together in dialogue for the first time, as well as the ways in which they constructed their identities in a midcentury American art world.

Nevelson called herself an “architect of shadow” and built monumental structures from the scraps of razed buildings. Slobodkina was a painter who extended the use of color, form, and texture to transform her surroundings. They were world builders. But first, they built themselves—as immigrants, working women, and creative pioneers of abstraction—who bravely set out to become artists at the start of the Great Depression.

In this exhibition, each woman’s story amplifies the other’s. In their artworks—which reveal the two as fellow travelers in the legacy of cubism, surrealism, and constructivism—assemblage is an important unifying theme. Works include found object sculptures, mixed media reliefs, collage, painting, jewelry, and clothing, including some of Nevelson’s most iconic fashion statements.

After the exhibition’s premiere at AMFA, it will go on tour to the Chrysler Museum of Art and the New Britain Museum of American Art in 2026.

Louise Nevelson (Kyiv, Ukraine (formerly Russian Empire), 1899 - 1988, New York, New York), Tide Garden IV, 1964, painted and assembled wood construction, 91 x 140 x 10 in., Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation Collection: Gift of Sidney Singer, Sr., Stephens Inc., Gerald Cramer, Martin Oppenheimer, Edward Rosenthal, and John Rosenthal. 1983.030.