Blind Man's Buff

1984 · Sculpture

May one see it?

Yes, receiving visitors

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Cleveland, United States

Room229C Contemporary

On public display.

Checked: 3 days ago
In this state since: Aug 19, 2026
Source: The museum

On the map Museum page

About the sculpture

Wit and play are essential elements throughout Louise Bourgeois's work. Here the work's title is a variation on "Blind Man's Bluff," the child's game in which a blindfolded person must look for fellow players using only sound and touch. The artist's revision of "bluff" to "buff" has a dual meaning. It evokes the method of smoothing or "buffing" marble, which was part of the work's production. "Buff" also relates to the sculpture's evocation of nude body parts, both male and female. The allusion to nudity is reinforced by the fabric folds visible at the sculpture's edges, as if clothing has been cast aside.

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Particulars

Accession number: 2002.29.a

Meanwhile, in the life of Louise Bourgeois

The whole life

1938–2010 · Workplace
New York City
1980s
Returns to printmaking in her seventies
Bourgeois returned to printmaking after a long hiatus, in her seventies, encouraged first by print publishers: she set up her old press, added a second and worked with printers who came to her house. Over her life she created approximately 1,500 printed compositions.
1982
First retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art
In 1982 the Museum of Modern Art in New York held Bourgeois’s first retrospective; she was seventy, and until then had been a peripheral figure whose work was more admired than acclaimed. The New York Times wrote that her work was charged with tenderness and violence, acceptance and defiance.
1982
The text “Child Abuse” in Artforum
In 1982 Bourgeois wrote a text for Artforum titled “Child Abuse”, in which she defined her artistic concepts almost entirely in terms of childhood trauma.
1985
First solo exhibition in France
In 1985 Bourgeois’s first solo exhibition in France was held.