Contents
Louise Bourgeois
Creating giant spider sculptures and installations that turn memory, family and anxiety into physical forms.
Femme Maison · The Destruction of the Father
- Born
- 25 December 1911
- Birthplace
- Paris, France
- Died
- 31 May 2010
More people
Louise Bourgeois
Louise Bourgeois was a French-American artist who worked across sculpture, printmaking and installation. Recognition grew late in a long career rooted in childhood memories and the emotional life of the body.
Early life
A tapestry workshop
Helped in her family’s tapestry-restoration business, drawing missing sections of patterns.
From mathematics to art
Studied mathematics before turning to art in Paris after her mother’s death.
Career
- 1938
New York
Married art historian Robert Goldwater and moved to the United States.
- 1940s
Early exhibitions
Presented paintings and then sculptures in New York.
- 1982
A major retrospective
The Museum of Modern Art surveyed her work, bringing much wider recognition.
- 1990s–2000s
Large installations
Developed enclosed Cells and monumental spiders for museums and public spaces.
Selected work
Femme Maison
Images combining women’s bodies with houses.
The Destruction of the Father
An enclosed sculptural environment charged with family symbolism.
Cells
Rooms and enclosures containing objects that evoke memory and vulnerability.
Maman
A towering spider with a sac of marble eggs.
Beyond the studio
A long working life
Continued producing art into her nineties from her New York home and studio.
Family and memory
Her mother’s work repairing tapestries informed the spider as a figure of protection and repair.
Sources & photo credit
Life, career and references ↗Museum or specialist research ↗Photo: See source. CC BY-SA 4.0 · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
