The eminently provocative and intriguing work of Louise
Bourgeois spanned two centuries. Her work; largely sculptural, often spoke to
her love of the fabric/textile world. French born; she came from a family of
individuals that made art and tapestries their business. The very essence of
her being was tied to the creative activity of restoring and the selling of
antique tapestries. It is no accident that she also connected to nature’s most
prolific weaver; the spider. Her affinity for the spider was expressed over and
over within her body of works. This abundantly evident throughout her life as
she tireless worked through the decades. She would even acquire the nick-name
“Spider-Woman.”
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
Louise Bourgeois’ father too affected her throughout her
life emotionally and creatively in that he was harsh, overly critical and had
multiple affairs with women. Bourgeois’ nanny was included in the number of his
continuing infidelities. Louise was greatly affected and really never forgave
her father. She would go on in life and replaced any misgivings with education,
work and a desire for self-exanimation and curiosity. These models would
encouragement and inform her for her life’s entirety.
Once I was beset by
anxiety but I pushed the fear away by studying the sky, determining when the
moon would come out and where the sun would appear in the morning.
Louise Bourgeois
After marrying and moving to New York City she would
continue as both teacher and student at the university level and even in public
schools, Bourgeois was a force. Her salons at her home in Chelsea (Manhattan)
would take on the name “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” because of her scathing and
brutally honest critics that often expressed her dry, biting wit. Friend and associate to many of her famous
peers including Dekooning, Pollack and Ferdinand Léger (who informed her early
on that she was a sculptor; not a painter.) She would be late acquiring wide
success possibly due to gender. Her work could be construed as feminist and
even surreal but she rejected all labels as she worked to express her emotions,
memories and muses.
“My work deals with
problems that are pre-gender...for example, jealousy is not male or
female."
Louise Bourgeois
It was MoMA that would be the first museum to give Louise
Bourgeois a retrospective in 1982. Other retrospectives would follow world-wide
including Saint Petersburg’s Hermitage and London’s Tate Modern. Washington
DC’s foremost museum of modern art The Hirshhorn would exhibit a Bourgeois
retrospective in 2009. I was able to attend it several times and enjoyed
passing her huge “Crouching Spider” at the museum’s entrance. The Hirshhorn
retrospective was extremely inclusive boasting 120 pieces and showcased her
every style and medium; plaster, bronze, marble, wood, resin, latex and found
objects. Bourgeois was talented, intelligent, caring, thoughtful and beautiful
in every aspect of her being. Her art is her testament to life.
It is not so much where my motivation comes from but rather how it
manages to survive.
Louise Bourgeois
