page_782 < previous page page_782 next page > Page 782 between aggressor and victim; both sides were simply characterized as "belligerents." The first Neutrality Act (August 1935), passed after Italy's attack on Ethiopia in May 1935, empowered the president, on finding a state of war, to declare an embargo on arms shipments to the belligerents and to announce that U.S. citizens traveling on belligerents' ships did so at their own risk. This act set no limits, however, on trade in materials useful for war, such as copper, steel, and oil. The 1935 act was replaced by the Neutrality Act of 1936 (February 29), which added a prohibition on extending loans or credits to belligerents. The Spanish civil war, which broke out in July 1936, was not covered by existing neutrality legislation, which applied only to wars between nations; accordingly, Congress by joint resolution on January 6, 1937, forbade supplying arms to either side. When the 1936 law expired, the Neutrality Act of 1937 (May 1) included civil wars, empowered the president to add strategic materials to the embargo list, and made travel by U.S. citizens on belligerents' ships unlawful. The practical difficulties of maintaining neutrality became clear, however, when Japan's incursions into China led to the outbreak of fighting there on July 7, 1937. Since invoking the Neutrality Act would penalize China, which was more dependent than Japan on American assistance, President Franklin D. Roosevelt chose not to identify the fighting as a state of war. The Neutrality Act of 1939 (November 4) contained a "cash and carry" formula devised by Bernard M. Baruch. Belligerents were again permitted to buy American arms and strategic materials, but they had to pay cash and to transport the goods in their own ships. This provision, it was believed, would prevent the United States from being drawn into war either by holding debt in some belligerent countries or by violating blockades while transporting supplies. In addition, the president was empowered to designate a "combat zone" in time of war, through which American citizens and ships were forbidden to travel. On November 17, 1941, after repeated confrontations with German submarines in the North Atlantic and the torpedoing of the destroyer Reuben James, Congress amended the act to permit merchant vessels to arm themselves and to carry cargoes to belligerent ports. But three weeks later, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States was at war. See also Isolationism; World War II. Nevelson, Louise (1900?1988), artist. Nevelson became one of the world's best-known woman artists and the pioneer of environmental sculpture. Born Louise Berliawsky in Kiev in the Ukraine, she immigrated as a young child to Rockland, Maine, with her family. She moved to New York in 1920 to marry and initially explored dance, theater, and music. Dissatisfied with family life, she searched for a vocation. She turned to painting and drawing and studied at the Art Students League with Kenneth Hayes Miller, Kimon Nicolaides in 19281929, and briefly with Hans Hofmann in 1932. That same year she separated from her husband and took an extended trip to Europe. When she returned, they divorced and she dedicated herself to her work. Although she had been exhibiting since the late 1930s, Nevelson arrived at a mature style only in her fifties. The twenty-five-year period of exploration before she arrived at her signature style (19331958) coincided with the development of New York City as the new center of the international art world. Working as an assistant to Diego Rivera on the Rockefeller murals and as an art teacher with the New Deal's WPA, Nevelson partook of contemporary trends and events. She was influenced in the thirties by the powerful forms of African, American Indian, and pre-Columbian art, and in the forties by the iconoclasm of dada and surrealism as well as the elements of dream and mystery represented in those movements. Nevelson had the first of five one-woman shows between 1941 and 1946 at the prestigious Nierendorf Gallery in New York. Her most daring and prophetic works from this period were wood sculptures showing the effect of surrealist whimsy and her penchant for collage. They were included in her first thematic exhibition, The Circus, the Clown Is the Center of His World, at the Norlyst Gallery in 1943. She was  < previous page page_782 next page >