Louise Bourgeois

Louise Bourgeois Born December 25, 1911 in Paris, France Moved to New York, NY October 12th, 1938 Died May 31, 2010 in New York, USA

Deeply symbolic her works deals with issues of desire, sexuality, identity, and isolation.

Biography Studied art at various schools in Paris, including the Ecole du Louvre, Académie

des Beaux-Arts, Académie Julian, and Atelier Fernand Léger. In 1938, she emigrated to the United States and continued her studies at the Art Students League in New York.

Though her beginnings were as an engraver and painter, by the 1940s she had turned her attention to sculptural work

Early sculpture was composed of groupings of abstract and organic shapes, often carved from wood. By the 1960s she began to execute her work in rubber, bronze, and stone, and the pieces themselves became larger, more referential to what has become the dominant theme of her work—her childhood.

Deeply symbolic, her work uses her relationship with her parents and the role sexuality played in her early family life as a vocabulary in which to understand and remake that history.

The anthropomorphic shapes her pieces take—the female and male bodies are continually referenced and remade—are charged with sexuality and innocence and the interplay between the two. Bourgeois’s work is in the collections of most major museums around the world.

Installation view, 'Louise Bourgeois: The Fabric Works', Fondazione Emilio e Annabianca Vedova,

Venice, Italy, 2010

Installation view, 'Louise Bourgeois: The Fabric Works',

Fondazione Emilio e Annabianca Vedova, Venice, Italy, 2010

Installation view, Museum of

Capodimonte, Naples, Italy,

2008

Installation view, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York NY, 2008

Installation view, Solomon R. Guggenheim

Museum, New York NY, 2008

Installation view, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France, 2008

Installation view, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France, 2008

Installation view, 'Louise Bourgeois - Aller-Retour', Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria, 2006

Spider, 2003Stainless steel

and fabric22.9 x 30.5 x 35.6 cm / 9 x

12 x 14 in

Maman – The Spider The Spider is an ode to my mother. She was my best friend. Like a spider, my mother

was a weaver. My family was in the business of tapestry restoration, and my mother was in charge of the workshop. Like spiders, my mother was very clever. Spiders are friendly presences that eat mosquitoes. We know that mosquitoes spread diseases and are therefore unwanted. So, spiders are helpful and protective, just like my mother. – Louise Bourgeois

Tate Modern, London

Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri

National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario

State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain

Mori Art Museum, Roppongi, Tokyo, Japan

Samsung Museum of Modern Art, Seoul, South Korea

Pappajohn Sculpture Park, Des Moines, Iowa

Web http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fq4_QVkFgw&feature=related http://archives.cbc.ca/arts_entertainment/sculpture/clips/17449/ http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/bourgeois/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5wQOJd5TzQ&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi2KhYQB1tk

Other WorkThe Welcoming Hands 1996

Couple, 1966Fabric

Untitled, circa 1970Oval: paint on board

Passage dangereux, 1997

Mixed media

The Hour Is Devoted to Revenge, 1999Wall relief: steel and lead

I Do, I Undo, and

I Redo 1999-2000

Untitled, 2005Fabric

Femme, 2005 Bronze, silver nitrate patina