Louise BourgeoisAmerican, 1911–2010Untitled
May one see it?
Not receiving at present
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the work
Throughout most of the 20th century, Louise Bourgeois used abstract art as a means to explore her own subconscious and autobiography. This drawing dates from a period during which the artist developed a vocabulary of expressive lines—typically parallel marks and closely spaced hatching—to convey both compulsion and movement. It belongs to a series that Bourgeois titled "skein" drawings, referring to their long thin lines that suggest thread and the texture of weaving. This symbolism was personally significant, as the artist's family sold and restored tapestries and she first learned to draw while assisting in their workshop. She also compared the rolling forms in drawings such as this to the raw power of water, both within nature and in the context of spa treatments her mother received at a spa for emphysema around this time, adding further meaning to the sheet.
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Particulars
- Accession number
- 1998.112
In the catalog
Sources
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Image: The Cleveland Museum of Art — © The Easton Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Meanwhile, in the life of Louise Bourgeois
The whole life1938–2010 · Workplace
New York City
1940s
A turn to sculpture under the influence of the Surrealists
In the 1940s Bourgeois concentrated on sculpture, and she was strongly influenced by the influx of European Surrealist artists who emigrated to the United States after the Second World War. At first her sculptures consisted of groups of abstract, organic forms, often carved from wood.
1949
First exhibition of her sculptures
In 1949 the first exhibition of Bourgeois’s sculptures was held.
1950s
The turn from wood to marble, plaster and bronze
Working with the American Abstract Artists group, Bourgeois moved from wood and upright structures to marble, plaster and bronze as she investigated fear, vulnerability and loss of control. The transition was a turning point.
1951
Becomes an American citizen
Soon after her father’s death, in 1951, Bourgeois became an American citizen.
1951
Her father’s death
Bourgeois’s father died in 1951. To her he represented injury and war, the aggrandizement of himself and the belittlement of others and, above all, betrayal.
