Bourgeois, Louise

• 1921-1927 - Lyceum of Fenelon , Paris.
• 1932-1935 - She studied mathematics at the Sorbonne , Paris.
• 1935-1936 - High School of the Louvre , Paris.
• 1936-1937 - Roger Bissiere class at the Ranson Academy .
• 1936-1937 - Académie d'Espagnat.
• 1936-1938 - School of Fine Arts , Paris (Devambez and Colarossi).
• 1937-1938 - Academy of Grand-Chaumiere , Paris (classes of Oton Frieze and Robert Vlerik ).
• 1938 - Julian Academy , Paris.
• 1938 - Académie Scandinavie (class of Charles Despio ).

Louise Bourgeois was born December 25, 1911. Her childhood and adolescence took place in Aubusson. Parents had a trellis restoration workshop. In these early years, Louise Bourgeois witnessed adultery of her father with an English governess who lived in their house. These events, the death of his mother in 1932, an attempted suicide and a difficult relationship with his father left deep emotional wounds, from which Bourgeois tried to free herself later with the help of creativity ^[6] . The diaries that she kept since 1923 speak of feelings of anger, guilt, fear, which torn Louise Bourgeois. The rich symbolic work of the Bourgeois is deeply personal, it cannot be considered separately from its life story.

In 1932, Bourgeois entered the Sorbonne ^[7] , where she studied mathematics, in 1936 she began studying art at the Louvre School and the School of Fine Arts, assisted Fernand Leger , became interested in leftist ideas ( communism ), surrealism and constructivism ^[6] . Then she visited the Soviet Union a couple of times ^[7] . In 1938, she married American art critic Robert Goldwater, an expert on primitive art, who became the first director of the New York Museum of Primitive Art in 1957. In 1939, she moved to New York with her husband.

In America, she turned to sculpture. In 1947, Bourgeois made the first vertical sculpture of wood, the first exhibition of her sculptures was held in 1949. In 1951, the artist's father died, Louise Bourgeois received American citizenship. Since 1960, Bourgeois began to teach on a regular basis. Since 1966 she became a member of the feminist movement. In 1967, Bourgeois began using marble and bronze to create sculptures. Since 1972, the artist regularly visits Italy. In 1973, the bourgeois husband, Robert Goldwater, died. In 1977, the artist received an honorary doctorate in fine arts from Yale University. In 1980, Bourgeois bought a large studio in Brooklyn. In 1982, the artist's first retrospective was held - at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 1985, the first solo exhibition of the artist in France. In 1992, Bourgeois shows the first sculptural environment . In 1993, he represents the United States at the Venice Biennale. In 2001-2002, the Hermitage hosted an exhibition of the works of Bourgeois (sculptures, objects and lithographs).

On May 31, 2010, Bourgeois died in New York at the age of 98.

The work of Louise Bourgeois is often called the encyclopedia of modern art, as it reflects all the main directions of art of the twentieth century - cubism , futurism , surrealism , constructivism and abstract art. Her works are abstract and figurative, realistic and phantasmagoric , made in various manners and from various materials such as wood, marble, bronze, gypsum, latex and fabric.

At the beginning of her creative career, Bourgeois was engaged in graphics and painting. A reflection of the post-war situation can be found in a number of memorable works of the artist, shown at her first solo exhibition. In the series “Femme Maison” (1945-1947) and “Fallen Women (Femme Maison)” (1946-1947), Bourgeois used the technique of surrealists, fusing various objects: a female body and house-like structures. These works testify to the role of the artist as a pioneer in the generation of women who broke many barriers in the masculine art circles of that time. In addition, at a deeper level, these works expressed a sense of frustration and powerlessness in the face of the destructive threat of fascism and war.

In the 1940s, Bourgeois focused on sculpture, for which she is now recognized as one of the leading masters of the twentieth century. Bourgeois was greatly influenced by the influx of European surrealist artists who immigrated to the United States after World War II. At the beginning, bourgeois sculptures consisted of groups of abstract and organic forms, often carved from wood. In the 1960s, she began to use latex, bronze and stone, the works themselves became larger, referring to what became the main theme of her work - the traumatic experience of childhood.

In the late 1960s, the post-war boom ended, and the bourgeois witnessed a new wave of revolutionary struggle (1968-1975) and the collapse of a number of dictatorships. She was not ready for this new period and turned to identity politics. Having distanced itself from socialism and leftist ideas during the post-war period in America and the Cold War, Bourgeois turned to an “alternative” policy based on gender issues. Typical works of this period are Sleep II (1967) and Fillette (1968), which are interpretations of the male genital organs.

One of the most significant works of the end of this period was the installation Destruction of the Father (1974), which is a cave-like structure in which stone-like figures surround a sacrificial plate on which parts of the body are scattered (including pieces real lamb bought in a butcher shop). This is a very disturbing work, which resembles the work of one of the favorite artists of Bourgeois, the Spaniard Francisco Goya .

In 1982, Bourgeois wrote a text for “Artforum,” entitled “Child Abuse”, in which she defined her artistic concepts almost entirely as part of childhood injuries. An illustration of this period is the marble sculpture of Femme Maison (1983) - a seated female figure with a head resembling a building. In Femme Maison , created in 1994, a female figure lies on her back without arms, her head is fused to a house that has a small door.

In the 1980s, the work of Bourgeois became a subject of growing interest. On the one hand, various academia welcomed her in connection with existentialism and feminism. On the other hand, young artists were interested in her life and work because of creative independence, the use of various styles, links to the history of art and sensitivity to social issues.

The 1990s saw a new period in the work of Bourgeois - “cells”. One of the artist’s goals was to create a self-contained environmental independent of the museum environment into which to enter. These designs are a kind of isolation of past experience. The title of the work, Dangerous Passageway, speaks for itself. A long passage, similar to a prison one, runs along cameras with images of the past and torture devices. In Cell (Choisy) (1990-1993), the cell contains a marble sculpture of a house located under a large guillotine, resembling a scene from a nightmare.

Later works (late 1990s -) include a series of heads and fabric figures depicting various stages of pain and despair. For example, Couple IV (1997) is an old-fashioned display case like the ones you can see in provincial museums, which contain two headless rag figures, as if trying to make love.

Louise Bourgeois created her own special symbolic dictionary , in which personal experience and fantasies are concretized into expressive images. For example, the use of a spider is not a sign of arachnophobia (fear of spiders), but indicates a wrapping and patient mother. In the same way, sewing needles are not aggressive symbols, but are used to indicate loss recovery. The houses are not depicted as a refuge, but as a cell or cell where there is a danger of losing oneself.

The “Spiders” of the Bourgeois, metal sculptures of huge spiders, are widely known. In 1999, the artist received the Golden Lion at the 48th Venice Biennale .

• Legion of Honor (2008)
• Austrian Badge of Honor “For Science and Art” (2005)
• Wolf Prize in the Arts (2002/3).
• Imperial Prize of Japan (1999).
• US National Medal of Arts (1997).

• Krauss R. Louise Bourgeois: Portrait of an artist in the image of fillette // Krauss R. Bachelors. - M .: Progress-Tradition, 2004 .-- S. 38-52.
• Turkina O. Louise Bourgeois: Pandora's Box. SPb .: Borey-Art, 2001, 90 p. ISBN 5-7187-0355-8

• Works, biography, exhibition information on the Hauser & Wirth Gallery website
• Cheim & Read Gallery
• Artnet
• Biography, essays, interviews, videos on art21
• Essay "The lonely runner" on Artzar
• Barbara Krakow Gallery
• Interview 2006
• Artfacts

In Russian:

• Article “Exhibition of Louise Bourgeois in the Hermitage”
• The article "Louise Bourgeois Exhibition in Paris" (inaccessible link from 03/14/2014 [2027 days] - history , copy )
• The article "Grandma with Spiders", "Kommersant", 2008
• Louise Bourgeois at the Hermitage
• Louise Bourgeois exhibition in New York
• Book from Louise Bourgeois (inaccessible link from 03/14/2014 [2027 days] - history , copy )
• In London exhibited 9-meter sculpture of a spider by Louise Bourgeois
• LOUISE BOURGEOIS: THOSE WHO ARE NOT AFRAID. The Tretyakov Gallery Magazine, # 3 2016 (52)