This sculpture is made of terracotta, a clay-based ceramic used for both art making and industrial purposes. Its three sections, with a lightly carved face on the topmost piece, evoke a human figure. Louise Nevelson designed this sculpture with movable parts: the top two sections can pivot along the metal pole. Nevelson completed a series of these works around 1945. Known for her innovative monochromatic sculptures, later built mostly of assembled wood fragments, Nevelson painted this work all black, which she described as “the most aristocratic color of all.”