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May 20, 2011 – Review
"Le vertige de la moraine. Strate II: Louise Nevelson and Isabelle Cornaro" Galerie 1m3, Lausanne
Quinn Latimer
It is difficult to describe the intense pleasure afforded by this small, precise exhibition of works by Louise Nevelson and Isabelle Cornaro. Although four decades separate these two artist’s series on view, their striking affinity lies in a shared interest in limits—each explores the frame and the monochrome—and the infinite possibilities on which such precincts are predicated. That said, the pleasure of the show might come from the innate comfort of the frame and the wonder we allow ourselves to experience at what exists within it. Which is to say, the freedom of feeling conjured by this exhibition has everything to do with restrictions (of form, color, material, and space) and the infinite variation of assembly that such rules paradoxically provide.
Nevelson’s ultimate interest in “total environments,” with their persuasive monochrome finish, is cleverly echoed in the exhibition’s installation. The walls on which the late American artist’s three small, black assemblages hang are painted an equally smitten noir. Thus, with the walls like dark waves looming behind, her smaller yet dense constructions of wooden cast-offs become more like the monumental works she is best known for. Elsewhere, walls have been left white, some featuring a surface of pale, ceramic tile, leaving …