Exhibition Notes - Louise Bourgeois 1911-2010: Nature Study

suzannenicholl
Nov 12
5 min read

What follows are my notes on a guided tour of an exhibition of Louise Bourgeois' work at Compton Verney, 6th September 2024. Exhibition Notes are my way of recording and reflecting on exhibitions I've visited. They aren't polished by any means, but act as an aide-memoire, with photographs and comments, as well as links to the best rabbit holes I've enjoyed exploring. So grab a cuppa, sit back and be inspired.

Louise Bourgeois' (LB) fraught and complex relationship with both parents is well documented and is central to her work as an artist and sculptor.

The exhibition focussed on LB's relationship with nature and included ,many of her smaller paintings, textiles, sculptures and installations.

LB often talked of how her Spiders were her most successful work. The exhibition didn’t focus on this period of her work but more info can be found in this film and widely on the internet.

A film of Lousie Bourgeois peeling a tangerine

The exhibition begins with a film of an interview conducted by art critic and film maker Waldemar, and the peeling of a tangerine.

LB shows how her father would perform his ‘party trick’ as he peeled an orange after dinner. He demanded the focus of attention and created a perverse tension as he performed and humiliated his children.

The interviewer kept the orange peel, seen here on display - stuck to the paper with nothing more than orange juice.

LB’s family worked in the tapestry and fabric industry. The act of wringing dyed fabric was one LB was familiar with, and became one of the influences in creating a spiral motif in her work.

Ode to la Bievre

A display of beautifully stitched fabric pages, that would have been joined via button holes. Inspired by nature the design utilises preowned family garments and textiles.

The material choice and design connected to LB’s early memories as well as to the natural world.

They struck me as far more structured and pristine then previous work I knew of LB. Skilful and restrained in their making.

Spirals 2005

The block prints below feature a spiral motif which is recurring in LB’s work.

Wood prints on hand made Japanese paper

Alluding to not only the continuous cycle of life but also the artist’s emotional state. The curving lines retreating inward, converging in on themselves. And at the same time the lines diverge into outward expansion.

LB was said to comment that whilst the spiral reminded her of life’s endless cycle, it also made her think of wringing the neck of her father’s mistress!

A simple motif loaded with an element of malevolent threat and fear.

These sculptures use her own garments, exploring the weight and change in body, mortality and passage of time. Using different materials to convey ideas and emotions in her work.

Within the fragile delicate lace pieces are held vertebrae and other bones. A nod to life and death, I found quite discomforting.

Made during the 60’s, whilst experimenting with new materials, LB developed the Anthropomorphic Landscapes- explorations of the body as landscape - rivers, crevasses, lumps and bumps. Organic bodily aspects.

Following the death of her father in the late 50’s she underwent extensive psychotherapy and began making work relating to her psychological state. Her art was influenced for many years by her therapy and developed a deep reference to the unconscious mind.

LB suffered from insomnia and was incredibly productive during these times of sleeplessness, creating a body of work called the insomnia drawings.

Manifesting as bodily landscapes between sleep and wakefulness.

LB created many sculptures and paintings with fleshy, topographical tropes featuring fleshy clusters of breast.

Signature colours are strong furious and emotive red, along with cool and calming blue.

Hands appear frequently in her art relating to dependency and human relationships.

10.00 am is when her studio assistant would arrive to work together. Jerry and her hands linked to pluck her out of despair. Drawn on music score sheets - humming and music were a sense of comfort and provided structure to the work.

Spiralling and reaching of hands around each other continue her motif of twisting.

The hanging cloth sculptures created from her garments - interdependence and ambiguity. A sense of amendment expressed- something she experienced throughout her life. Jumping around.

A figure held in a spiral.

The duality of benevolence and

LB’s work has a great deal of ambiguity not just one theme explored.

Beginnings, endings, moment of change - the goddess deity Janus

Transformation and growth, as well as a connection to nature. She also explores the male and female within each of us. Many sculptures twist and turn in spirals as they are suspended.

Shown as three tree like organisms rather than the female form.

Large gouache paintings made as gifts.

Represent plants but also have a connection to bodily organs. Working wet loose paint onto wet paper with the emphasis on the incidental nature of the process.

Her work stemmed from a desire to work through her emotions. Giving fear form through her art. Giving it a physical form she could address the fear and would often discard or destroy it.

Her ideas about controlling fear is exercised in the painting,

Strong use of blue and red.

The passage of time was a strong this collection and is completed when LB is 98 having, worked all her life. Made in 2008 she explores the aging process on an overwhelmingly scale with references to cycle of life, childbirth death. They have a topographical quality.

Early work - manifestation of the spiral made of bronze and painted. Like a fortress - it’s named Lair - a refuge to escape to, just like her work. But the lair is also the dwelling place of threatening creatures.

Release-

Early painting, having left France for New York after the horrors of the Second World War.

She conceived of herself as a runaway girl and this painting shows a degree of elation and excitement at escaping her dysfunctional home life. But it’s ambiguous- is it terror or horror ?

She made many totem like sculptures- often considered to be the representation of the lives ones she left behind. Her three sons and the domestic life can be seen - the roles of artist wife and mother.

The arc of hysteria is another motif she uses in her work - support and again mirrors in her hanging sculptures

Stuffed with straw to give a bodily presence held in position via the umbilical. Both genitals in many of her sculptures- believing we have both male and female in each of us and challenging that women alone suffer some emotions.