Louise Bourgeois Has Died at 98

Louise Bourgeois photographed in 1990 behind her marble sculpture Eye to Eye (1970)
Photo Raimon Ramis
© Adagp, Paris 2008

"I have been to Hell and back and let me tell you it was wonderful."
- Louise Bourgeois

The artist Louise Bourgeois has died at 98 on Monday at the Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan. It seemed that she would live forever. Her career has been historic.
Holland Cotter has just written in the New York Times that "her psychologically charged abstract sculptures, drawings and prints had a galvanizing effect on younger artists, particularly women."

I have been inspired by Louise Bourgeois' work for quite some time, having encountered her sculptures for the first time when I was a High School student taking classes at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington DC. Her life ends but the mystery embodied in her artwork lives on.

A recent bio provides the details:

"Louise Bourgeois was born in Paris in 1911 to a family of tapestry restorers. In 1938, Bourgeois married American art historian Robert Goldwater and moved to New York City, where she currently lives and works. In a career extending over seven decades, Bourgeois has explored her memories and fears in a complex body of work ranging from poetic drawings to room size installations. She has stated that she gives her emotions and fears a physical form. In 1982, Bourgeois was the first woman artist to receive a Retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. She represented America at the Venice Biennale in 1993, and was given the National Medal of Arts by President Clinton in 1997. In 2007, the Tate Modern in London, in collaboration with Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, organized a Retrospective of her work that travelled to the Guggenheim, Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Hirshhorn in the United States."

More details to follow...

Louise Bourgeois, Artist and Sculptor, Is Dead
E' morta a 99 anni la grande Louis Bourgeois

Louise Bourgeois edition to benefit Freedom to Marry

"Everyone should have the right to marry. To make a commitment to love someone forever is a beautiful thing."
- Louise Bourgeois


Louise Bourgeois
I do, 2010
Archival dyes on cloth with embroidery
16 × 12 inches; 40.6 × 30.4 cm
Edition of 300 with 35 APs
Gift of the Artist; Courtesy of Cheim & Read, New York