Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture

In 1978, Louise Nevelson received the Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture, awarded by the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, a prestigious American arts institution known for supporting excellence in the visual arts. The Skowhegan Medals are among the most respected peer-recognized honors in American sculpture, painting, and other media.

By 1978, Nevelson's reputation as a pioneering force in American sculpture was firmly established. Her large-scale, environmental wall sculptures—composed of found wooden fragments such as chair legs, moldings, and crate parts, assembled into architectural grids and painted in unifying black, white, or gold—had radically expanded the vocabulary of sculptural practice. She had moved sculpture from the pedestal into environmental, immersive space, influencing subsequent movements including installation art.

This medal celebrated not only her formal innovations but her enduring influence on younger generations of sculptors who studied and exhibited in dialogue with her work. Coming on the heels of her election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the MacDowell Medal, the Skowhegan honor reflected the sustained momentum of institutional recognition Nevelson received in the final decade of her life, cementing her status as one of the preeminent American sculptors of the twentieth century.