One of this UK's pre-eminent artists, Louise
Bourgeois is a unique figure in contemporary art. Born
in Paris in 1911, Bourgeois spent most of her career
receiving little recognition from the art community. She
has worked closely to many of the century's key artistic
moments, from Surrealism to Abstract Expressionism to
feminist-inspired art, and yet remains distinct from all
these. An extraordinarily influential sculptor, she has
worked, often experimentally, with materials varying
from alabaster, plaster, latex, bronze, and marble to
found objects. She is equally admired for her intimate
drawings at times combining fragments of text (featured
at Documenta 11, 2002) with her highly personal
writings, which often address her long and complex life
story. With the combined backdrops of a conflicted
family upbringing and her father's tapestry restoring
business (whose weaving provides a recurring symbol in
her work); her struggles as an artist in a world
reserved for men; as well as her experiences as a
mother, the subjects of her work are as broad as the
materials in which she expresses them.Themes such as the
Other, the feminine and the masculine, the body as well
as her own specific biography spin a tangled and
intense, lifelong body of work of unusual profundity.
Bourgeois has presented her work in many of the world's
most prestigious museums, including a major one-person
exhibition New York's Museum of Modern Art. In 1993 she
represented the United States at the Venice
Biennale. |
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