Louise Bourgeois A l'infini, Fondation Beyeler, Switzerland, September January 8, 2012
Fondation Beyeler in Basel has launched a wide-ranging retrospective exhibition to mark the 100th birthday of legendary Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010), one of the most unique and influential artist personalities of the 20s century. If fate hadn't willed otherwise, the artist herself perhaps would have participated in this symbolic celebration. Louise Bourgeois passed away in May 2010 at the age of 98 and had been working until the very last moment. This exhibition is a project that started while the artist was still alive and now it continues in collaboration with Louis Bourgeois Studio.
In her long life, Louise Bourgeois has witnessed almost all the 20th century avant-garde artistic expression, always being at the epicenter, at the same time preserving her vivid individuality. Her art has always been based on a narrative (sometimes very personal one) about the woman's life - her sexuality, search of identity, loneliness, a sense of loss and her outsider's status in a male-dominated world. Bourgeois's mother was a weaver. Her daily work was restoration of ancient fabrics, and her image in the artist's eyes always associated with that of an amiable spider. The spider is a recurring theme in Bourgeois's works. On the one hand, the spider is a tribute to her mother, on the other - it is a kind of monument to an everlasting change, a symbol of eternal regeneration and the endless story of human life. Spider motif has been present in the artist's work already since the 40th, both in drawings and sculptures. In the framework of this exhibition, one of the most famous Bourgeois's spiders will be exhibited in the Fondation Beyler museum garden - the magnificent Maman (1999), which previously has been shown at London's Tate Modern, Bilbao Guggenheim Museum, New York Rockefeller Center and the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.
Although Bourgeois's name has always been more related to sculpture and installations, her range of artistic expression comprised also painting, drawing and graphical art. The exhibition features twenty of her most outstanding artworks - sculptures, characterizing each decade of her career, and previously unexhibited works, including the late cycle À l'infini (2008). A particular place in the story about Bourgeois's unique visual narrative and chains of associations is devoted to artists, who were her close friends and inspirers, e.g., Fernand Leger, Francis Bacon and Alberto Giacometti.
Baselstrasse 77
www.fondationbeyeler.ch
Foto:
Louise Bourgeois
Red Fragmented Figure, 1953
Painted wood and stainless steel
158.8 x 22.2 x 26 cm
Private Collection, Switzerland
Photo: Peter Bellamy
© 2011, Louise Bourgeois Trust / ProLitteris, Zürich
Louise Bourgeois
The Blind Leading the Blind, 1947-1949
Wood, painted red and black
170.5 x 163.5 x 41.3 cm
Collection Louise Bourgeois Trust, courtesy Cheim & Read and Hauser & Wirth
Photo: Christopher Burke
© 2011, Louise Bourgeois Trust / ProLitteris, Zürich
Louise Bourgeois
Installation view: Bürkliplatz, Zurich with Maman, 1999
Bronze with silver nitrate patina, stainless steel and marble
927.1 x 891.5 x 1023.6 cm
Collection The Easton Foundation, courtesy Hauser & Wirth and Cheim & Read
Photo: Mark Niedermann
© 2011, The Easton Foundation, courtesy Hauser & Wirth and Cheim & Read/ ProLitteris, Zurich
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