Women Artist Series - Louise Bourgeois.
Chapter 3: Relationships.
With her pain starting before she was even born (Bourgeois, 2007)[1], Louise is an artist who was constantly haunted by her own nostalgia. Born in Paris 1911, she was daughter of Josephine Fauriaux, a tapestry restorer, and her father Louis Bourgeois, whom which she had a complex relationship with. Bourgeois’ Mother and Father are central subjects which have dominated her life’s works, revealing intimate details of their relationship.
‘The Family’ (2007)
The relationship between Louise and her Father was doomed from the start. Louise claims that she entered the world ‘displeasing’ him, because he’d always longed for a son (Bourgeois, 2007)[2]. This disappointment foreshadowed the fracturing of the Bourgeois family, as Louis began an affair with the Bourgeois’ au pair (Sadie) after Josephine fell ill with the Spanish flu in 1919. It was a ‘double betrayal’ (Bourgeois, 2007)[3] in which Louise would seek her revenge by occupying her hands to make art.
‘Seven in a bed’ (2001)
Stuffed soft sculpture ‘Seven in a bed’ (2001) , appears to be a childlike object at first glance. However when you look closely, it is an explicit intertwining of lustful bodies penetrating each other. With the title evocative of the nursery rhyme ‘3 in the bed’, Bourgeois plays with the ideas of innocence paired with her own childhood torment. Louis’ affair is also explored in ‘The family’ (2007), where a male figure is penetrating a female figure. Whilst the lines are strongly defined for the male figure, the female figure almost dissipates from the dilution of the ink. This pairing of both dominance and submission are almost fusing together in an array of passion.
‘Fillette’ (1968)
‘Janus Fleuri’(1968)
Arguably some of my favourite works of Bourgeois are ‘Fillette’ and ‘Janus Fleuri’. Her appropriate choice of materials challenge this dualism of both seduction and repulsion, whilst maintaining a textural balance between hard and soft. Louise uses latex to create a softer feminine illusion of the penis, whilst using bronze to cast the vagina as a hard and heavy sexual organ. The material’s ‘weight’ is reflective in the titles, as the masculine bodily organ is described as a ‘little girl’, the feminine organ is described as a ‘multifaceted flower’. Suspended in a gallery space, these body parts are yet again emblematic of Louise’s trauma of her fathers affair.
“My minimalism came from my love of geometry”
Whilst Louise’s mother died in 1932, she went to study mathematics, before turning to art. She loved the stability and order of geometry in particular, but also craved to explore how she could transform her life experiences into a greater purpose. This would explain why Louise’s works (particularly her drawings) were so heavily influenced by geometry.
Plate 8 of 9 from the illustrated book ‘Ode à Ma Mère’ (1995)
Louise’s relationship with her mother began to establish itself through the motif of the spider. Symbolic of a ‘weaver, maker and protector’ (Storr, 2018)[5] the spider reflected both Josephine’s role as a tapestry maker and the emotional materialisation of Louise’s psychoanalytic return to the archaic mother.
‘Maman’ (1999-2002)
Louise has famously transformed her spider drawings into 3-dimensional installations, in which the audience can walk amongst this spider/mother object. The spiders are surrealist in scale and capture the viewer’s instinctual fears, challenging them to overcome this fear by participating in the work as either prey or a ‘child’ figure. I think that the spiders are Louise’s most popular works because they actively encourage participation whilst retaining this ambiguity between fear and protection.
‘Cell XXVI’ (2003)
Even in her later life, Louise Bourgeois remained a highly ambitious artist. Describing herself as a ‘prisoner of memories’ (Bourgeois, 2007)[6], her body of work ‘Cells’ is a cathartic manifestation of this imprisonment. They are architectural microcosms of her unconscious mind and past traumas. Containing objects which hold personal references, they reveal Bourgeois’ anxieties about her traumas themselves, and her repetitive demand to face and contemplate them.
“In order to liberate myself from the past, I have to reconstruct it, ponder about it, make a statue out of it, and get rid of it through making sculpture. I’m able to forget it afterwards. I have paid my debt to the past and I am liberated.”
Bourgeois’ work doesn’t just contain memories of her past. It’s trauma which is applied both metaphorically and comically, which in turn, reveals her complex and intimate relationships. It’s this authentic approach which makes Bourgeois a fierce Women Artist.
References:
[1],[2],[3],[4],[6] & [7]
Louise Bourgeois: Spiderwoman (2007) [documentary] Jill Nicholls. UK: BBC. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkaJ6S0ViXg
[5] Storr, R. (2018) Louise Bourgeois: ‘A Prisoner of my Memories’ [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ifn0qwTbgcA
Bibliography:
Pollock, G. (2013) After-affects | After-images. Trauma and aesthetic Transformation in the virtual feminist museum.1st Edition. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
BBC 4. (2013) Secret Knowledge, Tracey Emin on Louise Bourgeois. [video] The Fruitmarket Gallery. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHyAsMdBbH4
Louise Bourgeois: Spiderwoman (2007) [documentary] Jill Nicholls. UK: BBC. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkaJ6S0ViXg
The Easton Foundation (no date) Biography. Available at: http://www.theeastonfoundation.org/biography
HENI Talks (2018) Louise Bourgeois: ‘A Prisoner of my Memories’ [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ifn0qwTbgcA
Haus der Kunst (2017) Exhibition — Louise Bourgeois: The Cells [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMXQz2AsKQk
Illustrations:
Bourgeois, L. (2007) The Family. [gouache on paper] 59.7 x 45.7 cm. Hauser & Wirth Gallery. Available at: https://www.vip-hauserwirth.com/works/bourg102732-bour-11211/
Bourgeois, L. (2001) Seven in a Bed [fabric, glass, wood] 68 x 33 1/2 x 34 1/2 inches. Image Available at: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/985231154410257/
Bourgeois, L. (1968) Fillette [latex over plaster] Estate of Peter Moore, Museum of Modern Art, New York © Louise Bourgeois. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/tate-etc/issue-11-autumn-2007/lumps-bumps-bulbs-bubbles-bulges-slits-turds-coils-craters-wrinkles
Bourgeois, L. (1968) Janus Fleuri [bronze] 25.7 x 31.7 x 21.2 cm © The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY. Available at: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/110573
Bourgeois, L. (1995) Plate 8 of 9 from the illustrated book Ode à Ma Mère. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. © 2017 The Easton Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, NY. Courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art. Image Available at: https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-louise-bourgeoiss-drawings-reveal-creative-process
Bourgeois, L. (1999-2002) Maman. Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. Image Available at: https://www.artnews.com/art-news/artists/louise-bourgeois-spider-sculptures-history-1202687603/
Bourgeois, L. (2003) Cell XXVI. Image Available at: https://www.sartle.com/artwork/cell-xxvi-louise-bourgeois
