(9 of 9)
Do such questions matter? In the short view, yes; in the long, not very much, since an artist is entitled to be judged by her best work, and the best of Nevelson possesses a unique energy, authority and wholeness. Even her picturesqueness is not a show, at least not in the sense of amusement; it is a carefully sustained, aggressive and rather spiky mask that renders her un available to those who would take her casually, as mere spectacle. In getting to this pitch of achievement, she, like Georgia O'Keeffe, has also redrawn the assumptions that surround the role of women in art. In that respect she belongs to the culture as a whole, not just to the art world and its concerns. "I think you have to look into yourself and do what you think is your fulfillment," she says. "If women have not taken their rightful places, they were in a world that was male oriented . . . they were meant to look pretty and throw little handkerchiefs around but never to show that they had what it takes. Well, I didn't recognize that, and I never never played the role. If you play that role, you don't build an empire." Nevelson has built hers, and not only for herself.
—By Robert Hughes