Louise Bourgeois is surely one of the most important and outstanding artists at the close of the
20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries. This prominent position is the outcome of a life
spanning 90 years and of the constant preoccupation and confrontation with the people, places
and experiences of a life as a daughter, a young artist, a wife, a mother. And finally it is the
result of the tremendously prolific period she had in recent years. It is precisely her work over
the last 20 years that has given Louise Bourgeois a unique standing within the development of
modern art and has also brought her career to an appropriate pinnacle.
In Paris, where she was born, she met face to face with the moderns of the time. In 1938 she
left for New York with her American husband. There she raised three sons and picked up
artistically where she had left off with her first Parisian paintings. Only that now she increasingly
turned towards sculpture and over the years the objects grew more and more complex and
spatial. The development of her artistic thinking though continued to be shaped by her ongoing
graphic work, especially during those years when limitations in space and family duties caused
a permanent struggle for an identity and for the continuation of her artistic work.
Who happens to meet Louise Bourgeois today will find her an alert 90 year old enjoying life and
expanding an ever more intense oeuvre rooted in the experiences of a long life and
concentrated hard work. Not one fibre of her being seems interested in the superficial. The
inimitable way in which she asks questions is a mode of thinking and remembering and it goes
hand in hand with an absolute candour when it comes to the personal.More than in her art she
is interested in people and in her own existence and instead of adhering to theories she opens
herself up to all aspects of the human experience. Therefore it is in her own biography and
above all in her childhood that she discovers the stimulus and the motifs for her work.
Louise Bourgeois studied art at a time when the female artist was the exception to the rule in a
male-dominated world. The intensive and genuine interest many young artists of both sexes
have shown for the person Louise Bourgeois and her work demonstrates how significant an
example her development has been for the paradigm shifts society in general and art have seen
since then. Against this background the path from youthful individuality and freshness to mature
reflection in her work seems a very apt expression of our situation at the outset of a new
millennium.
The exhibition at the Kunstraum Innsbruck presents a selection of graphic and sculptural works
from the 90ies. The central piece is a complex creation from the Cell-series, the Passage
Dangereux. The production of the 90 year old surprises with an ever increasing intensity and
vitality. An exploration of the spacious cage-like structure with all its bizarre furnishings leads us
as much into our own as into the artist's memory: 'My name is Louise Josephine Bourgeois. I
was born 24 December 1911, in Paris. All my work in the past 50 years, all my subjects, have
found their inspiration in my childhood. My childhood has never lost its magic, it has never lost
its mystery, and it has never lost its drama.' |
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