Currently, all around Venice during the Biennale—plastered on walls, on the sides of water buses as they float down the Grand Canal—is a commanding photograph.
In it, the artist Louise Nevelson, imperious, gazes out implacably through her signature heavy-lashed, smoky eyes. Standing in front of one of her sculptures, Nevelson wears a riding cap, an intricate brocade vest, and a silk shirt.
Lynn Gilbert’s 1976 portrait of Nevelson has become something of a symbol for this year’s Biennale, which, for the first time in the event’s 127-year history, consists of over 90 percent of artists identify as female or gender-nonconforming.