LOUISE BOURGEOIS - 60 YEARS OF DRAWINGS

LOUISE BOURGEOIS (1911-2010)

 Born in Paris in 1911 and a New Yorker since 1938, Louise Bourgeois created a unique oeuvre—that owes no allegiance to 20th-century "isms"—in the course of a career than has spanned more than 60 years. Her art is grounded in her own life and experience: "My goal is to re-experience a past emotion … to relive anxiety … anxiety is a passive state, and the object is to be active and take control." Yet Louise Bourgeois did not create an autonomous universe as an artistic hermit. While her art is nourished by personal experience, it also draws from art and art history—a wellspring of inspiration from which she developed her themes, concepts, and approach to media in both two- and three-dimensional works.

Her rich and fascinating oeuvre is the subject of this publication, which presents more than 40 works from 1939 to 2002 from a private collection in Switzerland. Mostly dedicated to drawings, the publication juxtaposes extracts from her diary with impressive full-color illustrations of the works. Beautifully produced, the book only exists in a limited edition of 500 copies.