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An
inspiration to all of us--the fact that for over
seven decades, the sculptor Louise Bourgeois has created a
difficult oeuvre that explores the relationship between sculpture,
architecture, and the human body and that she manages to be
modern, relevant, and vital. The Parisian--born artist
moved to New York in 1938 with her husband, the art critic Richard
Goldwater, and has been a New Yorker ever since. We
took in the recent Guggenheim retrospective last week. We
were greeted in the rotunda by her iconic spiders. The
spider for Bourgeois has associations with memory and her mother;
the family business was after all that most mythological of
enterprises--the repair of tapestries. Spiroid metal
sculptures were suspended from the ceiling; the spiral is a
recurring motif in her work and these pieces melded
marvelously with the museum’s own winding ramp. Her Personages,
tall thin sculptures that she huddled together
evoked both New York skyscrapers and groupings of people: a family,
a circle of friends, a wider community. She uses a wide range of
materials in her work: metal, stone, wood, latex, resin, marble,
pieces of fabric.
Also
on show were her Cells--sculptural installations that incorporated both her work and the architecture
within which they were displayed. In some, the viewer walked
inside, while in others one looked through windows in order to
view the contents--a jumble of sculptures, found items and
personal objects.
Bourgeois, a force of nature, continues to create at age 97. |
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