Bourgeois also kept three types of diaries. She described these as:
The Art of Louise Bourgeois
With a career spanning eight decades from the 1930s until 2010, Louise Bourgeois is one of the great figures of modern and contemporary art. She is best known for her large-scale sculptures and installations that are inspired by her own memories and experiences.
Using drawings, prints, sculpture and fabric works from the ARTIST ROOMS collection, this resource takes an in-depth look at her work through the themes and ideas of this extraordinary artist.
Meet Louise Bourgeois
Before exploring the themes behind her work, meet the artist. In this video, Louise Bourgeois lets us into her home and shares insights into her life and work.
Bourgeois’s mother and father had very different characters. Her mother had a logical and intellectual approach to life, in contrast to the emotive and passionate character of her father. These opposing forces became a key theme of much of her later work. Her double-headed sculptures suggest the sense of two very separate forces relentlessly attached together. Janus Fleuri 1968 consists of two forms joined back to back but apparently pulling away from each other.
The spider
In 1947 Louise Bourgeois drew two small ink and charcoal drawings of a spider. Fifty years later in the late 1990s, she created a series of steel and bronze spider sculptures.
In a 2008 film made about her life, Louise Bourgeois: The Spider, The Mistress and The Tangerine, Bourgeois described these spider sculptures as her ‘most successful subject’. Bourgeois uses the spider, both predator (a sinister threat) and protector (an industrious repairer), to symbolise the mother figure. The spinning and weaving of the spider’s web links to Bourgeois’s own mother, who worked in the family’s tapestry restoration business, and who encouraged Louise to participate.
What Do You Think? Materials and Meanings
Explore the different materials Louise Bourgeois used.
- Look at Louise Bourgeois’s work in Art & Artists.
- Think about what the different materials she uses adds to how the artworks look and the tactile effect they give the work.
- Think about what emotions the materials might reflect and how this affects your interpretation of the work.
Have a Go: Opposing Forces
Louise Bourgeois explored opposing forces or themes in her work.
- Are there any opposing forces that affect, or have affected you? Or can you think of imaginary narratives that relate to the idea of opposing forces? (These could be people who have played an important part in your life; opposing emotions you have had; or a symbolic idea of opposites – such as weak and strong or good and evil).
- Use these ideas to create your own work that explores opposing forces.
- Experiment with contrasting materials, shapes, forms and colours to suggest the different forces.
Here’s How Our Relationships Change Over Time (10 Illustrations)
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The genius often lies within the simple. Recently, ‘The New Yorker‘ artist Olivia de Recat has perfectly illustrated the complex dynamics of human relationships by drawing parallel lines, and they will have you smiling and crying at the same time.
“I bristle a little at the idea of ‘holding on’” to people,” de Recat told Bored Panda. “Something the simple drawings are meant to illustrate, and that I’ve come to believe is that closeness is kind of like a dance. Each type of relationship consists of two lives, independent and moving by/of their own volition. So, you really can’t force closeness between two people. All you can do is be there for the ones you love when they need you, and vice versa. This is perhaps why the ‘Parent’ line punched so many people in the gut.”
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“I think it’s important to identify when relationships (specifically friendships/romantic relationships) are difficult in ways that aren’t worth your energy. Knowing that comes from understanding your core values and feeling confident about where your ‘line’ is going. When you’re at peace with yourself, I think you’re drawn to partners who are moving in a similar direction, even if they can be a pain in the ass sometimes. In the end, there will probably be only a small handful of individuals who stay with you through the thick and the thin. That’s okay. In time, you’ll know who these people are because they will ignite something inside of you that is true and dazzling and ineffable. In committing to them, whether best friends or partners, you’ll also be committing to yourself.”
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“Honestly, for the longest time, I was the MVP of NOT letting go,” the artist said. “I could give you a laundry list of ways to keep the memories of your past relationships alive. They range from rereading journal entries to listening to old playlists, solving past relationship problems, and monitoring that person’s Venmo transactions. Don’t do any of those things [if you want to learn how to part with people].” Nowadays, her hunch is that to let go of someone, you must face your pain, head-on. “The pain just exists, and you can either deal with it upfront or drop it in a hole and handle it later. Either way, it’s going to resurface. And if you choose to bury it, it will probably germinate into some bizarre, unruly thing that will threaten all the good stuff you’ve been planting. In the same vein – and this is easier said than done – I’m beginning to think that letting go is about getting really comfortable with reality. If your line has taken you in a different direction, if their line has veered sharply away from yours, there is the temptation to project forward or look back to a time when you were closer. One way I’m learning to let go is by releasing myself from the idea of how I think my lines should be, and allow them to exist as they are.”
Immediately, many people started relating to Olivia’s work
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Someone even made one saddening drawing themselves:
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