Artist Center: Louise Bourgeois

Louise Bourgeois is an engraver, a painter, and a sculptor. She is recognized as the twentieth-century leader in sculpture. Hew work has paved the way for other artists, who have brought inspiration from her work. She herself was influenced by European Surrealist artists, who had immigrated to the United States after World War II. She drew her inspiration from many different influences, but the Surrealists help start her on her way to what she was going to create.

“My childhood has never lost its magic, it has never lost its mystery, and it has never lost its drama” (Louise Bourgeois). Later in her work, her childhood became the dominant theme in her work. This was from her relationship with her parents and the role sexuality played in her family. In her work, we see a lot of female and male bodies. These bodies are seen as sexual in her work, but are also innocent, playing between her childhood and adulthood. Her works is based off of how these two themes play against each other.

Along with her paintings and sculptures, she is also makes tapestries and laces, something she learned to do as a child. Her mother once told her that she would never pick up a needle, but she had done so anyways. Her mother didn’t want her to have the life of a tapestry maker or weaver. She uses this in a lot of her works, leading to why a lot of her works incorporate hands in the works. She finds hands to be an important part of life; they are what we use to create our works.

“I am not what I am; I am what I do with my hands…” (Louise Bourgeois). What she creates is sometimes discrete and sensitive, but is also very powerful and beautiful with the message it portrays. A lot of her work is autobiographical and it plays on how an adult and children need each other. Her works are extensions of the body and representations of memories.