Lecture | "From the Ancient to Avant-Garde: The Art of Louise Nevelson and Esphyr Slobodkina" with Lisa Hayes Williams

Louise Nevelson and Esphyr Slobodkina shared the unwavering conviction that abstraction most authentically expressed the spirit of their times. While neither artist adhered to any one school of the twentieth-century avant-garde, both assimilated and contributed to developments in Cubism, Surrealism, Constructivism, and assemblage from the beginnings of their careers in the 1930s and thereafter. Coming of artistic age in New York City during an era dominated by representational art, American Scene painting, and Urban Realism, they were united in their bold commitment to advancing abstraction, even when it was unpopular for emerging and especially women artists. Despite their mutual engagement with abstraction, however, each artist was motivated by uniquely different viewpoints. Nevelson consistently looked back in time and history for inspiration, as evident in her preoccupation with precolonial civilizations and architectonic forms, recurring references to “ancient” and “antique” subjects, and her nearly lifelong use of salvaged wood—a material she felt embodied “past lives.” Slobodkina, on the other hand, found fascination in mechanics, industry, and technology, in commercially produced materials that she encountered in her daily life and work, and—as intimated by the title of a 1978 work—in humankind’s “journey into the future.” In their work, abstraction constituted a potent language with the capacity to express complex ideas across human civilization.

This lecture considers the remarkable distinctions between these two artists, whose divergent approaches to art making—one looking backward to the past and the other looking forward—shaped their work and identities.

About Lisa Hayes Williams:
Lisa Hayes Williams is Curator and Head of Exhibitions at the New Britain Museum of American Art, where she has served for over a decade, developing exhibitions, programs, and partnerships that expand engagement with American art. With a background in modern and contemporary art, her work foregrounds social and environmental themes across diverse media. Recent exhibitions include John Hitchcock: We are Defined by the Beat (2026); Faith Ringgold: Declaration of Independence and Freedom (2026); Oscar Berger: Presidential Portraits (2026); Walter Wick: Hidden Wonders! (2023); Edward Burtynsky: Earth Observed (2022); Mildred Thompson: Cosmic Flow (2022); Some Day is Now: Women, Art & Social Change (2021); and Kara Walker: Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated) (2019). She has also curated the Museum’s NEW/NOW series, featuring contemporary artists such as Justin Favela, Anila Quayyum Agha, Eva LeWitt, Ellen Carey, Pablo Helguera, and Francisca Benítez. Williams has contributed to numerous catalogues and previously held curatorial roles at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. She holds an M.A. from Columbia University and a B.A. from Boston College.