Louise Bourgeois Press Kit
Artist s Statements Art is the acceptance of solitude. You express your solitude by being an artist if you can, if you have it in you Life is made of emotions. The objects I have created make them tangible Horizontality is a desire to give up, to sleep and be passive, to retreat. Verticality is affirmation, an attempt at a peaceful compromise and a desire for acceptance. Hanging and floating are states of ambivalence and doubt. The unconscious is volcanic in tone and yet you cannot do anything about it. You had better be its friend, or accept it, or love it if you can, because it might get the better of you. You never know Blue represents peace, meditation, and escape. Red is the affirmation at any cost - regardless of the dangers in fighting of contraction, of aggression. It s symbolic of the intensity of the emotions involved. Black is mourning, regrets, guilt, retreat. White means go back to square one. It s a renewal, the possibility of starting again, completely fresh. Pink is feminine. It represents a liking and acceptance of the self.
Les Fleurs, 2009, Screenprint on paper overpainted with gouache, Ed. XI/L (each work of the series is unique since overpainted), 27,9 x 21,6 cm Louise Bourgeois Editions 9 January to 24 February 2018 Opening Tuesday 9 January, from 6 to 8 p.m. The Galerie Karsten Greve is honoured to present Editions, an exhibition dedicated to multiples by the contemporary art icon Louise Bourgeois. Thanks to the support given by Karsten Greve, who held her first solo exhibition in France in his Paris gallery in 1990, she attains the ranks of 20th century masters. Almost thirty years later we are presenting this exhibition just as the MoMA in New York is devoting a large retrospective to Louise Bourgeois' prints and is publishing (Louise Bourgeois, An Unfolding Portrait), for the occasion, an on-line catalogue raisonné of this portion of her oeuvre. Our show includes over fifty items: single engravings, portfolios and illustrated books from the late 80's up until 2009. Amongst these selected works, one can admire engravings on fabric as well as drypoints, aquatints, and lithographs on paper that Bourgeois often enhanced with drawings. Throughout her career, Bourgeois devoted herself as much to sculpture as to works on paper and etchings. The artist always maintained an on-going interest in engraving, however printing was particularly important for her creative process at two points in her career: firstly, during her youth, soon after her arrival in New York, she took engraving classes and started going to Atelier 17 (where she would meet artists like Tanguy, Masson and Miró). And similarly so later on, throughout a very prolific phase that would last from the '80s until her death. This exhibition focuses on this second phase of production; the most fruitful one with regards to subjects, techniques and support materials.
Reminiscent of her Parisian childhood her parents had a tapestry restoring business in Saint Germain area fabric is part of the artist's sculptural imagination as well as often being associated with sewing as a metaphor for psychological healing. Nonetheless, her attachment to textile is so strong that she also uses it as a base for her prints; remarkable examples of which are on display in our exhibition: Cross-eyed woman V (Bust of a woman), drypoint on fabric done in 2004. The significance that Bourgeois gives to engraving stems from her great passion for illustrated books and meshes into her love of reading and writing. The artist is so fascinated by words, and their power to reveal the subconscious, that writing itself becomes an integral part of her creative process, playing a decisive role in the way she understands her emotions and fears. Thus is not surprising the devoted attention Bourgeois affords to artist's books such as The Puritan (1990), on display in the show. Comprising 8 illustrations and a text Louise wrote in 1947, it marks the end of a lengthy publishing hiatus (the very first book by Bourgeois, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, was published in 1947). But the creative process of making books was not often restricted to the classic format of the bound book. Homely Girl, a Life (1991-1992) is a project that comprises a bound version including a written piece by Arthur Miller, as well as a portfolio of 10 drypoints; featured in our show is the bound version in two volumes. The portfolios constitute a substantial portion of the multiples done by Bourgeois. Several of these are shown during the exhibition, namely: Topiary (The art of Improving Nature). This portfolio with 9 images ranging between drypoint and aquatints, done in 1998, addresses the theme of topiary, the art of pruning trees. In Bourgeois' works botanical species are often used as a metaphor for personal issues. Therefore, Louise associates the strength with which her sister Henriette fights an illness causing progressive rigidity in one of her legs, with the post-traumatic regenerative powers of plants. Topiary is also the title of a series of little bronze pieces in which a woman's body transforms itself into a branch; bringing to mind the iconography of the myth of Daphne. Engraving is thus closely tied into the themes Bourgeois undertakes in her sculptural work. In this exhibition therefore we come upon a version of Sainte Sébastienne once again (drypoint in black and white on paper, 1992), as well as the Tryptych for the Red Rooms (1994) which offers an interpretation of the arch of hysteria, a figure that represents a physical and psychological state where pain and pleasure blend to produce feelings of arousal expressed through an erotic impulse. This visit into the universe of an artist, whose private and artistic lives are intimately related, concludes with a very special edition of Fleurs, made by Bourgeois in 2009 for a limited number of close acquaintances. Mirroring her neuroses and obsessions, the underlying nature of her works is at once intimate and violent, tender and hard-hitting.
Louise Bourgeois Ste. Sébastienne 1992 Drypoint on wove paper Ed. 38/50 (Edition: 50; plus 10 H.C., 5 P.P.) 120 x 94 cm / 47 1/4 x 37 in Publisher: Peter Blum Edition, New York Printer: Harlan & Weaver, New York Cat. No. 504.2/VII Collections: Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo Baltimore Museum of Art Dallas Museum of Art, Texas The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston MoMA, New York Musée du Dessin et de l'estampe Originale de Gravelines (Nord) National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
Louise Bourgeois Topiary (The Art of Improving Nature) Portfolio with 9 compositions: all with etching and drypoint, 5 with aquatint, and 3 with hand additions Plate 9/9 1998 Drypoint and Aquatinta on wove Magnani Incisione paper Ed. 4/28 (Edition: 28; plus 12 A.P., 3 P.P., 1 H.C., 1 B.A.T.) 70,5 x 98,5 cm / 27 3/4 x 38 3/4 in Publisher: Julie Sylvester-Cabot, Whitney Museum of American Art Editions, New York Printer: Harlan & Weaver, New York Cat. No. 444-452 Collections: MoMA; New York Whitney Museum of American Art, New York Tate Modern, London
Louise Bourgeois From Homely Girl, a Life, vol. 1 (5) 1991 1992 Illustrated book with a text by Arthur Miller Two volume illustrated book with 10 drypoints, 1 with roulette and 1 with punching; 8 photolithographs; and 1 photolithograph of artist and author by Inge Morath Drypoint, lithography Ed. 37/100 (Edition: 100; plus 1 H.C. (numbered I/I) and a trade edition of 1200, plus a portfolio edition of the 10 drypoints of 44) 29,7 x 22,5 cm Support: Smooth, wove paper Publisher: Peter Blum Edition, New York Printer: Harlan & Weaver, New York (for drypoints) Cat. No. 926-943 Collections: MoMA, New York The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore
Louise Bourgeois Embracing the Tree 2000 Drypoint and etching on paper Ed. 22 /25 (Edition: 25 on paper; plus 7 A.P., 5 P.P., 2 H.C., 1 B.A.T., 1 T.P., and an edition of 6 on fabric) 49,5 x 40,6 cm Publisher: Harlan & Weaver, New York Printer: Harlan & Weaver, New York Cat. No. 278/II Collections: MoMA, New York
Louise Bourgeois The Cross-eyed Woman V (bust of a woman) 2004 Drypoint on fabric Ed. 4/5 (Edition: 5; plus 2 A.P., 1 P.P.) 41,3 x 46,7 cm/ 16 1/4 x 18 1/2 in Publisher: Harlan & Weaver, New York Printer: Harlan & Weaver, New York Cat. No. 295/II Collections: MoMA, New York
Louise Bourgeois Les Fleurs 2009 Screenprinting and gouache on paper Ed. XI/L (Edition: 50 adding drawings and one edition without, 175 and 25 A.P.) 27,9 x 21,6 cm / 11 x 8 1/2 in Publisher: The artist Printer: Dyenamix, New York "Les Fleurs" was the holiday gift for 2009. Cat. No. 698 Collections : MoMA, New York
BIOGRAPHY Louise Bourgeois was born on December 25 th, 1911 in Paris. She studied at the École de Beaux- Arts of Paris and joined Fernand Léger s atelier. In 2000 the artist has been charged to curate the opening installation in the Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern in London. Her works are part of the most important international public collections, such as the MoMA (which held her first retrospective in 1982, and to which Bourgeois donate the entire editions collection) and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. Her oeuvre is also included in many important private collections. All along her career, Bourgeois received important awards, such as the Golden Lion of the Venice Biennale (1999) and the Légion d Honneur of the French Republic (2008). In 2009 she has been honored by the National Women s Hall of Fame for her contribution in the history of the United States. In 1951 Bourgeois officially became an American citizen. She died in New York, were she moved in 1938, on May 31 st 2010, aged of 98 years. Education 1921-1927 Lycée Fénelon and Collège Sévigné 1932 Sorbonne 1934 Paul Colin 1936-1938 École des Beaux-Arts (studying with Devambez and Colarossi) 1936-1937 Atelier Roger Bissière dell Académie Ranson 1936-1937 Académie of D Espagnat 1936-1938 Académie de la Grande-Chaumière, as an assistant to Yves Brayer 1937-1938 Académie de la Grande-Chaumière, studying painting with Othon Friesz and sculpture with Wlérick 1937-1938 Docent at the Louvre 1937 Académie Julian 1938 Académie Scandinave with Charles Despiau 1938 Atelier Fernand Léger 1938 Marcel Gromaire and André Lhote 1939-1940 Vaclav Vytlacil Awards (Selection) 1973 Artist Grant, National Endowment for the Arts 1977 Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts Degree from Yale University, New Haven 1978 G.S.A. Commission, Manchester, NH 1980 Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Visual Arts from Women s Caucus for Art 1981 Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts Degree, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson Elected Fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Boston 1983 Elected Member of American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York
Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts Degree, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston Named Officier de L Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, by Jack Lang, French Minister of Culture 1983 President s Fellows Award, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts Degree, Maryland Institute, College of Art, Baltimore President s Fellows Award, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence 1985 Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan 1987 Honorary Doctorate, The New School, New York Gold Medal of Honor for Excellence in Art, National Arts Club, New York Named Fellow for Life at Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1989 Creative Arts Award Medal for Sculpture, Brandeis University Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement, College Art Association Neptune Award for the Arts, Snug Harbor, Staten Island 1990 MacDowell Medalist, MacDowell Colony, Peterborough The Sculpture Center Award for Distinction in Sculpture 1990, The Sculpture Center, New York 1991 Lifetime Achievement Award, International Sculpture Center, Washington D.C. Awarded the Grand Prix National de Sculpture by the French Ministry of Culture 1993 Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts (DFA) by Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York Mayor s Awards for Art & Culture, New York City Maison Francaise, New York University 1994 NORD/LB art prize 1992 1995 The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo and The Hakone Open-Air Museum, Kanagawaken, Japan, 1995 Biennial Award and Purchase prize for ARCH OF HYSTERIA Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts, Art Institute of Chicago, IL 1996 First Annual Urban Glass Award for Innovative Use of Glass by a Non-Glass Artist 1997 National Medal of Arts presented by President Clinton at the White House 1998 Academician of the National Academy, New York, Sculpture Class Citation from the National Association of Schools of Art and Design 1998 Recipient of the Wexner Prize, Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio State University Awarded the Golden Lion, for a living master of contemporary art, by La Biennale di Venezia 1999 Praemium Imperiale Award in the sculpture category from the Japan Art Association. 2000 Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts, The Art Institute of Boston Honorary Member, Akademie Der Bildenden Kunste Wien 2001 Honoree, ArtWalk, Coalition for the Homeless, New York 2003 Wolf Prize in the Arts (Painting and Sculpture), Wolf Foundation, Israel Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts, University of Illinois, Champaign 2005 Medal of Honor, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia
Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts, The Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, New York 2006 The Intrepid Award, National Organization For Women, Washington, D.C. 2007 Austrian Honour Medal for Science and Arts The Woman Award, The United Nations and Women Together, New York 2008 French Legion of Honor medal presented by President Sarkozy to Louise Aragon-Goya Award, Goya Foundation, Aragon Government, Zaragoza 2009 Inducted into National Women s Hall of Fame, Seneca Falls, New York Collections Publiques (Sélection) Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, USA American Craft Museum, New York, USA Australian National Gallery, Canberra, Australia Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, USA Battery Park City Authority for the Robert F. Wagner, Jr. Park, New York, USA Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, France British Museum, London, UK Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, USA Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh, USA Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, USA Denver Art Museum, Denver, USA Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, USA Detroit Institute of the Arts, Detroit, USA Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, USA Grafische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna, Austria Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain Hakone Open-Air Museum, Tokyo, Japan Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, USA Jane Addams Park, Chicago, USA Jardin des Tuileries, Paris, France Krannert Art Museum, Champaign, USA Kunstmuseum Basel, Bâle, Switzerland Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern, Switzerland Kunstmuseum Luzern, Luzern, Switzerland Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, USA Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienne, Austria Musée d art Contemporain de Montréal, Montréal, Canada Musée d Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France
Musée National d Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France National Gallery of Art, Washington, USA National Gallery of Victoria, Victoria, Australia New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, USA New York Public Library, New York, USA New York University, New York, USA Olympic Park, Seoul, South Korea Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, USA Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, Pittsburgh, USA Portland Museum of Art, Portland, USA Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain The Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, USA Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, USA Samsung Museum of Modern Art, Séoul, South Korea Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Lincoln, USA Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, USA Tate Modern, London, UK The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia Tokyo International Forum Art Work Project, Tokyo, Japan Ulmer Museum, Ulm, Germany Ydessa Hendeles Foundation, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, USA Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, USA
Solo Shows (Selection) GALERIE KARSTEN GREVE 2017 / 18 Louise Bourgeois, An Unfolding Portrait, MoMA, New York, USA 2017 Louise Bourgeois. Human Nature. Doing, Undoing and Redoing, Kistefos Museum, Jevnaker, Norway Louise Bourgeois. Twosome, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel 2016 / 17 Louise Bourgeois. Structures of Existence: The Cells, Musée van Hedendaagse Kunst, Anvers, Belgium, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany; Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia; Guggenheim Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark 2016 Artist rooms: Louise Bourgeois, Tate Modern, London, UK 2015 / 16 Louise Bourgeois. No Exit, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., USA 2015 Louise Bourgeois. I Have Been to Hell and Back, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden 2013 Louise Bourgeois. Editions, Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne, Germany Louise Bourgeois, Galerie Karsten Greve, Paris, France Louise Bourgeois. Alone and Together, Faurschou Foundation, Copenhagen, Denmark Artist Rooms. Louise Bourgeois, A Woman Without Secrets, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edimburg, UK Louise Bourgeois. Alone and Together, Faurschou Foundation, Beijing, China Between the Lines. Graphikfolgen von Louise Bourgeois, Graphic Collection, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland Louise Bourgeois. Late Works, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Bulleen, Australia 2012 Louise Bourgeois - Passage dangereux, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany Louise Bourgeois. The Return of the Repressed, Freud Museum, London, UK Louise Bourgeois 1911 2010, Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada 2011 Louise Bourgeois: À l infini, Hommage zum 100. Geburtstag, Fondation Beyeler, Riehen (Basel), Switzerland Louise Bourgeois. The Return of the Repressed, Fundación Proa, Buenos Aires, Argentina; The Instituto Tomie Ohtake, Sao Paulo; Museu do Arte Moderno, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
Louise Bourgeois. Suites on Fabric, Marlborough Graphics, London, UK Louise Bourgeois. Le Surréalisme, C est moi, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria Louise Bourgeois. Femme, National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland 2010 Grafik auf Stoff und Papier, Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne, Germany Louise Bourgeois. Skulpturen und Zeichnungen, Städtische Museen, Jena, Germany Louise Bourgeois. Mother and Child, Nordiska Akvarellmuseet, Skärhamm, Sweden & Kunstforeningen, Copenhagen, Denmark 2009 Louise Bourgeois, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C., USA Louise Bourgeois. A Stretch of Time. 40 Jahre Karsten Greve Köln, Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne, Germany 2008 Louise Bourgeois, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France Louise Bourgeois, Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples, Italy 2007-09 Louise Bourgeois: Retrospective, Tate Modern, London, UK; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, USA; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C., USA 2006 Crouching Spider by Louise Bourgeois, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, USA Louise Bourgeois. La Famille, Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany 2005 / 06 Louise Bourgeois. Center of Gravity, Istanbul Modern, Istanbul, Turkey Louise Bourgeois: Back and Forth, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria 2004 Louise Bourgeois. Drawings, Books, Prints, Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern, Switzerland Drawings by Louise Bourgeois, St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, USA 2003 / 05 Louise Bourgeois. Stitches in Time, Irish Museum of Art, Dublin, Ireland; The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edimburg, Scotland; Centre of Contemporary Art, Málaga, Spain & Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, USA 2003 / 04 A View From the Outside: Louise Bourgeois. The Reticent Child, Sigmund Freud Museum, Vienna, Austria 2003 Louise Bourgeois. The Insomnia Drawings, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA
2002 / 03 Louise Bourgeois. Le Jour La Nuit Le Jour, Palais de Tokyo, Paris 2001 / 03 Louise Bourgeois at the Hermitage, The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia; Helsinki City Art Museum, Helsinki, Finland; Kulturhuset, Stockholm, Sweden; Museet for Samtidskunst, Oslo, Norway (2002), Museet for Samtidskunst, Oslo, Norway; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark 2001 / 02 Louise Bourgeois, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain 2000 / 01 Louise Bourgeois, Grafiska Sallskapet, Stockholm; Norrköpings Konstmuseum, Norrköping; Göteborgs Konstmuseum, Göteborg, Sweden Louise Bourgeois. The Insomnia Drawings, Tate Modern, London, UK Louise Bourgeois. Spiders, Rockefeller Center, New York, USA 1999 / 2000 Louise Bourgeois. Architecture and Memory, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain Louise Bourgeois. Inaugural Installation of the Tate Modern Art at Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, London, UK Louise Bourgeois. The Space of Memory, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Kyunggi-Do, Korea The Welcoming Hands by Louise Bourgeois, Jardin des Tuileries, Paris, France (permanent installation) 1999 Louise Bourgeois, Musée d Art Contemporain, Bordeaux, France; Foundation Belem, Lisbon, Portugal; Malmö Konsthall, Malmö, Denmark; Serpentine Gallery, London, UK 1998 Louise Bourgeois. Topiary, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA Present Tense. Louise Bourgeois, The Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada Louise Bourgeois. Homesickness, Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama, Japan 1997 The Drawings of Louise Bourgeois, Centro Cultural da Light, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil Louise Bourgeois. Ode a Ma Mère, The Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, USA 1995 / 96 Louise Bourgeois, MARCO, Monterrey, Mexico; Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporaneo, Sevilla, Spain; Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico Louise Bourgeois, The Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, UK; The Arts Council of Wales Gallery, Wales Louise Bourgeois, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia
1994-96 Louise Bourgeois: Print Retrospective, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA; Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, France; Musée du Dessin et de l Estampe Originale, Gravelines, France; The Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, UK; Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht, The Netherlands Louise Bourgeois: Pensées-plumes, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France; Helsinki City Art Museum, Helsinki, Finland 1993-96 Louise Bourgeois: The Locus of Memory, Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York; The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., USA; Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague, Czech Republic; Musée d Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France; Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany; Musée d Art Contemporain de Montreal, Montreal, Canada 1992 / 93 Louise Bourgeois, Galerie Karsten Greve, Paris, France 1989 / 91 Louise Bourgeois. A Retrospective Exhibition, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt / Main; Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, Germany Germany; Musée d Art Contemporain, Lyon, France; Fondación Tàpies, Barcelona, Spain; Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern, Switzerland; Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, The Netherlands 1982 / 84 Louise Bourgeois: Retrospective, The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Akron Art Museum, Akron, Ohio, USA 1979 Louise Bourgeois, Sculpture 1941-1953. Plus One New Piece, Xavier Fourcade Gallery, New York, USA 1978-1979 Louise Bourgeois: Matrix / Berkeley 17, Berkeley Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley, USA 1964 Louise Bourgeois: Recent Sculpture, Stable Gallery, New York, USA 1959 Sculpture by Louise Bourgeois, Andrew D. White Art Museum, Cornell University, Ithaca, USA 1950 Louise Bourgeois: Sculptures, Peridot Gallery, New York, USA 1949 Louise Bourgeois, Recent Work 1947-1949. Seventeen Standing Figures in Wood, Peridot Gallery, New York, USA 1947 Louise Bourgeois: Paintings, Norlyst Gallery, New York, USA
Louise Bourgeois. Recent Work 1947-1949: Seventeen Standing Figures in Wood, Peridot Gallery, New York, USA 1945 Paintings by Louise Bourgeois, Bertha Schaefer Gallery, New York, USA Group Exhibitions (Selection) 2017 Inextricabilia, La Maison Rouge, Paris, France Women House, La Monnaie de Paris, Paris, France 2016 Embracing the Contemporary: The Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Collection, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, USA, Basquiat, Dubuffet, Soulages... Une Collection Privée, Fondation de l Hermitage, Lausanne, Switzerland 2015-2016 Like a Prayer, Magasin III, Museum and Foundation for Contemporary Art, Stockholm, Sweden 2015 The Great Mother, Palazzo Reale, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, Milan, Italy 2014-2015 The Art of Our Time. Masterpieces from the Guggenheim Collections, Guggenheim Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain 2014 La disparition des lucioles, Prison Sainte-Anne, Avignon, France 2013 Les Papesses, Palais des Papes, Avignon, France 2011-2012 Louise Bourgeois: the return of the repressed, Fundación Proa, Buenos Aires, Argentina Louise Bourgeois. À l infini, Fondation Beyeler, Basel, Switzerland 2010-2011 Louise Bourgeois: Moi Eugénie Grandet, Maison de Balzac, Paris, France 2010 Hans Bellmer Louise Bourgeois: Double Sexus, Sammlung Scharf Gerstenberg, Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany. Travelled to Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, The Netherlands 2006 Space: Places of Art, Akademie Der Kunste, Berlin-Mitte, Germany 2006-2007 Girlpower & Boyhood; Talbot Rice Gallery, The University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Travelled to Kunsthallen Brandts, Brandts, Denmark Picasso and American Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA. Travelled to San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA
À Ses Parents, Villa Jeanneret-Perret (La Maison Blanche by Le Corbusier), La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland Eros and Modern Art, Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel, Switzerland. Travelled to Kunstforum Wien, Vienna, Austria L'Homme-Paysage, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille, France 2006 Inner Worlds Outside, Fundación la Caixa, Madrid, Spain. Travelled to Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, UK; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland From Kiss to Kid, Fondation Claude Verdan, Lausanne, Switzerland Transforming Chronologies, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA Nominally Figured, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA Body Soul Face: The Position of Women from the 16th to the 21st Century, Leopold Museum, Vienna, Austria Full House: Views of the Whitney s Collection at 75, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA Under Cover: Artists' Sketchbooks, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA Center of Gravity, Istanbul Modern, Istanbul, Turkey Looking at Words: The formal Presence of Text in Modern and Contemporary Part Object Part Sculpture, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, USA Sculpture in Space, Musée Rodin, Paris, France Nothing is Deeper than Skin, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Valenciennes, France Contrepoint 2: De l objet d art à la sculpture Porcelaines contemporaines, Musée du Louvre, Paris, France 2004-2005 Fifth Biennial - Disparites & Deformations: Our Grotesque, SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA Art and Architecture 1900-2000, Palazzo Ducale, Genova, Italy Woman: Metamorphosis of Modernity, Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain Beauty and the Beasts, MART- Museo di Arte Contemporanea, Rovereto, Italy. Travelled to Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf, Germany 2004 Double Blind: Kunst Kinder Karriere, Paula Modersohn Becker Museum, Bremen, Germany 40th Anniversary Exhibition, United States Department of State, Washington D.C., USA Noah s Ark, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada; installed at La Cité de l'énergie, Shawinigan, Quebec, Canada Works and Days, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark Artéfacts: La Vie Secrète des choses, Fondation d Art Contemporain Daniel & Florence Guerlain, Les Mesnuls, France Ideal and Real, Galleria d Arte Moderna, Bologna, Italy The Great Parade: Portrait of the Artist As Clown, Grand Palais, Paris, France. Travelled to National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada
2003-2004 (In Search Of) The Perfect Lover, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Germany Travelled to Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle, Belgium Special Exhibit, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel Challenging Tradition: Women of the Academy 1826-2003, National Academy of Design Museum, New York, USA The Anxious Creation, Galleria d'arte Moderna at Palazzo Forti, Verone, Italy Happiness: a Survival Guide for Art and Life, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan Saint Sebastian. A Splendid Readiness for Death, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria VoxArtis Poland, Center for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland. Travelled to National Museum, Poznan, Poland Drawing Modern: Works from the Agnes Gund Collection, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, USA Contemporary Women Artists: New York, University Art Gallery, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, USA Surrealism USA, National Academy of Design, New York, USA. Travelled to Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, USA Group show, Foundation for the contemporary art Claudine and Jean-Marc Solomon, Annecy, France Springtide, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA Getting Emotional, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, USA Total Freedom: Colour After Klein, Barbican Centre, London, UK 51 st International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy 2003 Louise Bourgeois and James Lee Byars, Musée National d art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France On this side of the sky: UNESCO salutes Women in Art, UNESCOm Paris, France Insomnia: Night Landscapes, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington D.C., USA Expressive Trends, Foundation Beyeler, Riehen / Basel, Switzerland Sanctuary, Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, Scotland Why! Image, Reflections, SelfImage, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany The Eyesight and The Vision, IVAM, Valencia, Spain No Art - No City! City Utopias in Contemporary Art, Städtische Galerie im Buntentor, Bremen, Germany Der Akt in der Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts, Kunsthalle, Emden, Germany. Travelled to Arken Museum for Moderne Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark 2001-2002 Vital Forms: American Art and Design in the Atomic Age, 1940-1960, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY, USA. Travelled to Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville; San Diego Museum of Art; Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, USA 2001-2003 True Grit: Seven Female Visionaries before Feminism, Mills College Art Museum, Oakland, USA. Travelled to Boise Museum of Art, Boise; Marsh Art Gallery, University of Richmond, Richmond; University of New Hampshire, Durham; El
Paso Museum of Art, El Paso; University of Kentucky Art Museum, Lexington; Newcomb Gallery, Tulane University, New Orleans; Center for the Visual Arts, Metropolitan State College of Denver, Denver, USA 2001-2004 Surrealism: Desire Unbound, Tate Modern, London, UK. Travelled to Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA The Gift: Generous Offerings, Threatening Hospitality, Palazzo delle Papesse - Centro Arte Contemporanea, Siena, Italy. Travelled to Candiani Centro Culturale, Venice, Italy; Scottsdale Museum of Art, Scottsdale; The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New-York, USA; Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Evanston, USA; Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton, Canada 2000 / 2001 Man Body in Art from 1950 to 2000, Arken Museum for Moderne Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark Artists of the Gallery, Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne, Germany Hypermental - Rampant Reality 1950-2000. From Dali to Koons, Kunsthaus Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; Travelled to Kunsthalle Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany; Rudolfinum, Prague, Czech Republic 2000 Le Nu au XXème Siècle, Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France Presumed Innocent, Capc Musée d art Contemporain de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France Group Show, Galerie Karsten Greve, Paris, France 1999 / 2000 The American Century: Art and Culture, 1950-2000, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA Artworlds in Dialogue, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany Zeitwenden, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Switzerland; Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna, Austria Surrealists in Exile and the Beginning of the New York School, Reina Sofia / Museo Nacional Centro de Arte, Madrid, Spain; Musée d'art Moderne et Contemporain, Strasbourg, France 1999 Uncommon Threads: Contemporary Artists and Clothing, Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Cornell University, Ithaca, USA Rodin to Baselitz: The Torso in Modern Sculpture, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany Black Box: The Dark Room in Art, Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern, Switzerland Carnaval des Animaux, Den Haag Sculptuur, The Hague, The Netherlands Artist Collectors, Collection Lambert, Hôtel de Caumont, Avignon, France Le tribù dell'arte (Part II), Galleria Communale d'arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome, Italy Unwearable: Fashion as Sculpture, The Museum of Applied Arts, Cologne, Germany From Pablo Picasso to Louise Bourgeois: Classic Modernity and Contemporary Art from America, Ulmer Museum, Ulm, Germany
The Surreal Woman: Femaleness and the Uncanny in Surrealism, Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany The Myth and Madness of Ophelia, Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, Amherst, USA Skin-Deep: Surface and Appearance in Contemporary Art, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel 48th International Exhibition of Contemporary Art, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy 54x54x54, Museum of Contemporary Art, London, UK 1998 / 2000 Les Champs de La Sculpture, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan Bourgeois-Holzer-Lang, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria, Premises: Invested Spaces In Visual Arts and Architecture from France 1958-1998, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA. Organised by the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris 1998 Group Show, Galerie Karsten Greve, Paris, France Corps a vif Art et anatomie, Ville de Genève, Musée d art et d Histoire, Genève, Switzerland Wounds: Between Democracy and Redemption in Contemporary Art, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden 1997 Fifth International Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey L Empreinte, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France Amour, Fondation Cartier, Paris, France Angel, Angel, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria Chimeriques Polymeres, Musee d Art Moderne et d Art Contemporain, Nice, France A Decade of Collecting: Recent Acquisitions in Modern Drawing, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA 1996 Partners in Printmaking: Works from Solo Impression, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, USA Comme un Oiseau, Fondation Cartier, Paris, France Passions Privées, Musée d Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, France Inside the Visible, The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, USA; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, USA; Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK 1995 / 96 Féminin-Masculin: Le Sexe de l Art, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France The Material Imagination, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Soho, New York, USA 1995 XLVI Esposizione Internationale d arte, la Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy Rites of Passage, The Tate Gallery, London, UK
In Three Dimensions: Women Sculptors of the 90s, The Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, USA 23 Artistas Para Medicos del Mundo, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain Revolution in Contemporary Art: The Art of the Sixties, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan A Heart as a Friend, Triennale di Milano, Milan, Italy 1994 From Beyond the Pale, The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland Against All Odds: The Healing Powers of Art, The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo, Japan, organized by The Hakone Open-Air Museum; The Hakone Open-Air Museum, Kanagawa-ken, Japan Dialogue with the Others, Kunsthallen Brandts Klaedefabrik, Odense, Denmark This is the Show and the Show is Many Things, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Gent, Belgium Metamorphosis: Surrealism to Organic Abstraction 1925-1993, Marlborough Graphics, New York, USA 1993 Zeitreise. Bilder. MasChinan. Strategien. Rätsel, Museum fur Gestaltung, Zurich, Switzerland De la main à la tête, l objet théorique, Centre d Art Contemporain du Domaine de Kerguéhennec, Bignan, Locminé, France Drawing the Line against AIDS, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy. Reinstalled afterwards at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA Et tous ils changent le monde, IIéme Biennale d art Contemporain, Lyon, France Andere Länder - andere Sitten: Zeichnungen aus dem Kunstmuseum Bern, Palais Kinsky, Nationalgalerie Prag, Prague, Czech Republic 1992 documenta 9, Cassel, Germany Masterpieces from the Guggenheim Collection, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA From Brancusi to Bourgeois: Aspects of the Guggenheim Collection, Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA 1991 Dislocations, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA Art of the Forties, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA Kurt Fried zu Ehren - Die Sammlung, Ulmer Museum, Ulm, Germany Die Hand Des Künstlers, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany Pulsio, Fundacio Caixa de Pensiones, Barcelona, Spain Masterworks of Contemporary Sculpture, Paintings and Drawings: 1930s-1990s, Bellas Artes, Santa Fe, USA 1990 / 91 Four Centuries of Women s Art (Selections from the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC) The Bunkamura Museum of Art, Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan; The Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura, Kanagawa; Sapporo Tokyo, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan; Tenjin Iwataya, Fukuoka, Japan; Daimaru Museum
Umeda, Osaka Japan; Nagano Tokyu, Nagano, Japan; Hiroshima Museum of Art, Hiroshima, Japan; Matuszakaya Museum, Nagoya, Japan Road to Victory, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA 1990 Figuring the Body, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA Positions of Art in the 20th Century: 50 Woman Artists, Museum Wiesbaden, Wiesbaden, Germany 1989 / 90 Making Their Mark: Woman Artists Move Into The Mainstream 1970-1985, Cincinnati Art Museum, Eden Park, USA; New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, USA; Denver Art Museum, Denver, USA; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, USA El Surrealismo entre Viejo y Nuevo Mundo, Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain; Fundación Cultural Mapfre Vida, Madrid, Spain 1989 Bilderstreit, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany Enduring Creativity, Whitney Museum of American Art, Fairfield County, USA Magiciens de la Terre, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France Art in Place: 15 Years of Acquisitions, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA 1988 / 89 Figure as Subject: The Revival of Figuration Since 1975, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA; Erwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University, Wichita, USA; The Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, USA; Amarillo Art Center, Amarillo, USA; Utah Museum of Fine Arts, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA; Madison Art Center, Madison, USA 1987 / 88 The International Art Show for The End of World Hunger, Minnesota Museum of Art, Saint Paul, USA; Sonja Henie-Neils Onstad Foundations, Hovikodden, Norvège; Göteborgs Konstmuseum, Goteborg, Sweden; Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, Germany; Musée des Arts Africans et Océaniens, Paris, France; Barbican Art Gallery, London, UK 1987 Black and White, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA L Etat de Choses I, Kunstmuseum, Luzern, Switzerland The 100 Days of Contemporary Art of Montreal 1987: Stations, CIAC Montréal International Centre of Contemporary Art, Québec, Canada La Femme et le Surréalisme, Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland 1987 Biennial Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA 1986 / 88 Individual: A Selected History of Contemporary Art, 1945-1986, Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, USA 1986 Works in Bronze: A Modern Survey, Sierra Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, USA Philadelphia Collects, Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA
1985 / 86 An American Renaissance: Painting and Sculpture Since 1940, Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, USA American Art: American Women, Stamford Museum and Nature Center, USA Spuren, Skulpturen und Monumente ihrer präzisen Reise, Kunsthaus, Zürich, Switzerland, curated by Harald Szeemann. 1985 Affiliations: Recent Sculpture and Its Antecedents, Whitney Museum of American Art, Stamford, USA 1984 / 86 Content: A Contemporary Focus, 1974-1984, Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, USA The Third Dimension: Sculpture of the New York School, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA; Fort Worth Art Museum, Fort Worth, USA; Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, USA; Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, USA Primitivism, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA Works in Bronze: A Modern Survey, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, USA; Redding Museum and Art Center, Redding, USA; Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs, USA; Boise Gallery of Art, Boise, USA; Cheney Cowles Memorial Museum, Spokane, USA; University Art Gallery, California State University, Stanislaus, Turlock, USA; University of California, Santa Cruz, USA 1983 Artists in the Historical Archives of the Women s Interart Center of New York City, Philadelphia College of Art, Philadelphia, USA Twentieth Century Sculpture: Process and Presence, Whitney Museum of American Art at Phillip Morris, New York, USA Sculpture from the Collection of the Gray Art Gallery and Study Center, Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, New York, USA 1982 Twenty American Artists: 1982 Sculpture, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA The Human Figure, Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, USA Houses, Sculpture Center, New York, USA 1981 / 82 Variants: Drawings by Contemporary Sculptors, Sewall Art Gallery, Rice University, Houston, USA; Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, USA; Newcomb Gallery, Tulane University, New Orleans, USA; The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, USA 1981 Sculptor s Drawings over Six Centuries, The Drawing Center, New York, USA Decade of Transition 1940-1950, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA Classical Americans: XXth Century Painters and Sculptors, Stamford Museum and Nature Center, Stamford, USA 1980 Pioneering Women Artists 1900-1940, Helen Serger, La Boetie Inc., New York, USA One Major New Work Each, Xavier Fourcade, New York, USA
Across the Nation: Fine Art for Federal Buildings 1972-79, National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, USA 1977 30 Years of American Art 1945-1975: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA Contemporary Women: Consciousness and Content, Brooklyn Museum Art School, Brooklyn, USA Images of Horror and Fantasy, Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, USA 1976 200 Years of American Sculpture, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA Sculpture: American Directions, 1945-1975, New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, USA, organized by the National Collection of Fine Arts. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA 1975 20th Century Masterworks in Wood, Portland Art Museum, Portland, USA Sculpture: American Directions, National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, USA American Art since 1945 From the Collection of the Museum of Modern Art, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA 1974 East Coast Women s Invitational Exhibition, Museum of the Philadelphia Civic Center, Philadelphia, USA American Prints 1913-1963: An Exhibition Commemorating the 25th Anniversary of the Founding of the Abby Aldrich Rockerfeller Print Room, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA 1972 American Women Artists Show, Kunsthaus, Hamburg, Germany American Women: 20th Century, Lakeview Center for the Arts and Sciences, Peoria, USA 1970 L Art Vivant aux Etats-Unis, Fondation Maeght, St. Paul-de-Vence, France Sculpture 1970, Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, USA 1969 The New American Painting and Sculpture: The First Generation, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA The Partial Figure in Modern Sculpture, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, USA 6 th Biennale Internazionale di Scultura, Carrara, Italy 1965 Les Etats-Unis: Sculpture du XX Siècle, Musée Rodin, Paris, France 1966 1963 Treasures of 20th Century Art from the Maremont Collection, Washington Gallery of Modern Art, Washington, USA 1962 Woman Artists in America Today, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA; Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, USA
1961 Recent Acquisitions, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA 1960 To Be Continued: An Exhibition of the Museum Collection, Now and Prospect, Dallas Museum of Contemporary Art, Dallas, USA 1958 Nature in Abstraction, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA Sculpture 1950-1958, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, USA 1955 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Sculpture, Watercolors and Drawings, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA Contemporary American Painting and Sculpture, Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Champaign, USA 1954 Reality and Fantasy 1900-1954, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA 18th Annual Exhibition of American Abstract Artists, Riverside Museum, New York, USA 1953 40 Pictures from the Lee Ault Collection, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, USA Second Annual Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, Stable Gallery, New York, USA 1951 Recent Acquisitions, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA 1949 Master Prints from the Museum Collection, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA Third Annual National Print Exhibition, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, USA 13th Annual Exhibition of the American Abstract Artists, Riverside Museum, New York, USA Group Show, Peridot Gallery, New York, USA 1947 7th Annual Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture by Guest Members of the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors, Wildenstein and Co., New York, USA 45th Annual Watercolor and Print Exhibition, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Philadelphia Watercolor Club, Philadelphia, USA 1945 Textile Design, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA The First Biennial Exhibition of Drawings by American Artists, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, USA Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA 1944 Modern Drawings, San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, USA; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
1943 The Arts in Therapy: A Competition and Exhibition, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA 1942 Arts for Victory: An Exhibition of Painting, Sculpture and Graphic Arts, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA 1940 Fine Prints for Mass Production, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, USA 1936 Exposition de L Atelier de la Grande Chaumière, Galerie de Paris, Paris, France
Louise Bourgeois: An Unfolding Portrait Curator Deborah Wye discusses the first comprehensive survey of the artist's prints and illustrated books, on view at the Museum of Modern Art in New York For Louise Bourgeois (1911 2010), art was no less than a tool of survival and a guarantee of sanity. Best known for her spider sculptures and provocative figures, Bourgeois s hugely influential work explored themes of sexuality, motherhood, domesticity and the human body across a range of mediums. Key among these was printmaking, which she turned to in the earlier and later periods of her seven-decade career. Louise Bourgeois: An Unfolding Portrait, on view until 28 January 2018 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, is the first comprehensive survey of Bourgeois s prints and illustrated books. The exhibit draws on MoMA s vast archive of Bourgeois s printed work, which the artist promised to the museum in 1990. Curated by Deborah Wye, Chief Curator Emerita of MoMA s former Department of Prints and Illustrated Books, and a longtime friend of the artist, the retrospective situates Bourgeois s prints in the context of her overall practice and creative process. Here, Wye explains how closer consideration of Bourgeois s prints allow us to watch her imagination unfold. Louise Bourgeois has a long history with MoMA, and you have a long and close history with the artist as well. What made you decide that now was a good time to revisit her prints? Deborah Wye: When Bourgeois made the gift of her print archives in 1990 with acquisitions coming in for the rest of her life we committed to documenting and exhibiting the works. In 1994, we published the first catalogue raisonné of her prints up to that date. It included about 150 individual compositions and, with evolving states and variants, about 600 sheets in total. We also mounted an exhibition at that time. Bourgeois was in her 80s then, and we couldn't have known she would live to be 98, and that her print practice would flourish in the last decades of her life. Bourgeois died in May 2010, and later that year I retired as Chief Curator of Prints at MoMA. But I continued to work with the museum on a new comprehensive online catalogue raisonné of her prints on the MoMA website. Right now we have 4,300 sheets available live, and hope to finish our cataloguing by this spring. We expect to have a total of about 5,000 sheets. The exhibition is a celebration of this project. How has reception of her work changed in the past 30 years, since the first MoMA exhibit? DW: When I curated the first retrospective of her sculpture at MoMA in 1982, the general museum audience had never heard of her. She hadn t really sold anything at that point, so most everything we exhibited still belonged to her. It has been very gratifying, in the decades since, to see how her work evolved and to see how much it is now appreciated. At first her work could be baffling, even to me, but by the 1990s it
was as if the art world had caught up with her. People like Kiki Smith and Robert Gober and others were dealing with the body, with the grotesque and abject, but she had been dealing with those subjects all along. That was the decade she represented the United States at the Venice Biennale. She was named by Art News as one of the 10 best living artists and one of the century s 25 most influential artists. And it wasn't just her recent work that was getting attention people were also discovering her early sculpture and that of her middle years. How did you approach curating this exhibit? Did you have an overarching philosophy or framework? DW: With this show, I wanted to present her prints in relation to her other production to show it as integral to her overall practice. Bourgeois said that she didn t see any rivalry between mediums that they all said the same thing, just in different ways. I wanted to convey that, and to make the exhibition an exploration of her creative process. How is your own perspective on her work different now? DW: Louise s psychoanalytic writings were discovered in 2004 and 2010, while she was still alive. She had denied to me and others that she had ever been in therapy. But in fact she started psychoanalysis in 1952, after her father died. She continued in intensive analysis until about the mid-60s, and intermittently until her analyst died in 1985. Learning this made a big impact on me, and I became very interested in what the psychoanalytic process meant for her work. I always knew she was a great writer, but her psychoanalytic papers are particularly intense and revealing. When they were discovered, she re-engaged with them, asking that they be read aloud to her, and approved their study and publication. Now they re an essential part of her legacy. Can you tell us about the trajectory of her printmaking? DW: In the late 1930s and 1940s Bourgeois was a painter and printmaker, and did not turn to sculpture until later in the decade. At that point, she gave up painting and didn't return to printmaking until the late 1980s. In the 1990s and 2000s, printmaking became part of her daily practice. In those years, one of her major innovations was with fabric prints and books. For decades, Louise had saved her old clothes and those of her mother and of her own childhood years as well as fabric items from her trousseau. She never wanted to give them up. Eventually she started cutting up the garments and other fabrics to make sculptures of heads and figures. By turning those old clothes into works of art, she ensured that they would never be thrown away. Then, in 2000, she began to experiment with printing on fabric on linen handkerchiefs, placemats and hand towels. She loved the results, particularly the way the ink absorbed into the cloth, and the tactile qualities of the surfaces. From then on, fabric became her favourite printing support. She later expanded into fabric books, filled with collages made from bits of her old clothes. What does her print production reveal about her broader creative process? DW: Bourgeois loved to revisit her imagery, which makes printmaking ideal. Creating evolving states is part of the process artists often print sheets at various stages in the development of a composition, to see how things are coming along. Bourgeois could produce 20 or 30 evolving