Louise BOURGEOIS — one of the most imaginative sculptors of the 20th century
Disclaimer: The information provided in this episode comes from multiple sources and is not my scientific studies or discoveries. All authors and sources are credited at the end of this article. Thank you!
Welcome to HerArt podcast, a project for art lovers, especially art created by women. In our eleventh episode, we will talk about Louise BOURGEOIS — one of the most imaginative sculptors of the 20th century. My name is Nata Andreev and I am going to tell you seven curious facts that you didn’t know about the artist who pursued her own course with wit, intelligence, and daring — at times out of step with prevailing taste and ideas.
Curious Fact #1
As a teenager, Bourgeois assisted her parents in their tapestry-restoration business, making drawings that indicated to the weavers the repairs to be made. At 21 years old she entered the Sorbonne to study mathematics but abandoned that discipline for art.
Curious Fact #2
Bourgeois’s mother, Joséphine, suffered from ill health and Louise cared for her for long periods of time. Josephine died when Louise was just 22. This, and her father’s unfaithfulness (he had a series of mistresses) led to a fear of abandonment, a key theme in Bourgeois’s work. The backdrop of the First World War, which began when she was three years old, made her traumatic memories of childhood even more intense.
Curious Fact #3
In the 1970s, she supported young women artists and participated in campaigns and exhibitions organized by the MLF (Mouvement de Libération des Femmes). Nevertheless, Bourgeois never claimed to be a feminist, and once even declared: “I am a woman, so I don’t need to be a feminist.” Even though she remained unaffiliated with the movement during her lifetime, she remained an important influence on the female and feminist artists who followed in her footsteps.
Curious Fact #4
At 36 yo Louise drew two small ink and charcoal drawings of a spider. Fifty years later in the late 1990s, she created a series of steel and bronze spider sculptures. In a 2008 film made about her life, Louise Bourgeois: The Spider, The Mistress and The Tangerine, Bourgeois described these spider sculptures as her ‘most successful subject’. Bourgeois uses the spider, both predator (a sinister threat) and protector (an industrious repairer), to symbolize the mother figure. The spinning and weaving of the spider’s web links to Bourgeois’s own mother, who worked in the family’s tapestry restoration business, and who encouraged Louise to participate.
Curious Fact #5
In the heart of Bonnieux, a small postcard village in the Luberon lies the ‘Louis Bourgeois church’. Although the former convent is no longer used, it has been home to some very peculiar sculptures since 1998. This unique idea was commissioned by banker, collector, and convent owner, Jean-Claude Meyer. A confessional made out of an iron cage sits in the church, whilst a token Bourgeois spider weaves its web as it scales the walls of the holy building. The union of the church’s Carrara marble and Bourgeois’ intimate sculptures makes for a truly unique experience.
Curious Fact #6
Beginning in the 1970s, she hosted Sunday salons in her Chelsea apartment, where students and young artists would take their work to be critiqued by Bourgeois, who could be ruthless and referred to the gatherings, with characteristically dry humor, as “Sunday, bloody Sunday”. Nevertheless, this accessibility and willingness to advise younger artists was exceptional for an established artist of such standing. Her influence on other artists since the 1970s looms large but is manifested most strongly in feminist-inspired body art and in the development of installation art.
Curious Fact #7
Although she had been showing her art for many decades, Bourgeois first received recognition after her 1982 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art. Since then, her sculptures have been displayed throughout Europe and the U.S., and a catalog raisonné of her prints has reawakened interest in Bourgeois’s two-dimensional work. The artist was chosen to represent the U.S. at the Venice Biennale of 1993.
Thank you so much for listening to the last episode of HerArt podcast — a project for art lovers, especially art created by women. If you want to follow more of what we do, find us on Facebook and Instagram. I wanted to express my genuine appreciation for each and every one of you, that supported this project. And here is a special message to all the ladies that joined me for this year’s advent calendar adventure. You are a hundred percent that queen! And nobody can take that away from you. I hope you’ll continue to show love in 2020 as well! See you later!
References
Voorlinden | The Art Story | Guggenheim | Artsper Magazine | NMWA | Tate
