LOUISE BOURGEOIS: I HAVE BEEN TO HELL AND BACK. AND LET ME TELL YOU, IT WAS WONDERFUL
HAPPENINGText: Alma Reyes
Those who have been to Roppongi Hills have surely walked under or around the giant bronze and stainless steel spider sculpture at the open plaza. The creator, French-American artist Louise Bourgeois dedicated the remarkable piece, Maman (1999/2002), cradling white marble eggs in its belly, to her mother, who was a weaver and manager of their family tapestry workshop. “This spider is an ode to my mother. She was my best friend. Like a spider, my mother was a weaver. Like spiders, my mother was very clever… spiders are helpful and protective, just like my mother.” Several artworks having similar themes of affection towards her mother as a healer of wounds and nurturer of the young can be viewed at Mori Art Museum till January 19th, 2025.
Louise Bourgeois, Maman, 1999/2002, Collection: Mori Building Co., Ltd, Tokyo
Louise Bourgeois: I have been to hell and back. and let me tell you, it was wonderful, Bourgeois’ largest major solo exhibition in Japan since 1997, is heartwarming, and at the same time, provocative and utterly unsettling. The overall atmosphere dives in profound thoughts on the fragility of the human body and its sexuality, contradicting emotional and psychological states, and the inevitable suffering of mankind. The exhibition title is derived from the same passage in Bourgeois’ diary that she embroidered herself on a handkerchief work, Untitled (I Have Been to Hell and Back) (1996). The words emulate her years of persistent depression, yet conquered by resilience. In essence, she regarded her creations as autobiographical — a visual testimony of her childhood miseries arising from an abusive father and a chronically ill mother.
Louise Bourgeois, Untitled (I Have Been to Hell and Back), 1996, Photo: Christopher Burke © The Easton Foundation/Licensed by JASPAR and VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Calling herself as a survivor, therefore, Bourgeois reveals about 100 works, comprised of sculptures, paintings, drawings, fabric works, documentary films, and installations spanning seventy years till her demise in 2010 at the age of 98. Subjects traverse across her youthful days in France and adult life in New York, and are filled with the desire to enunciate her buried emotions. As a talented writer, Bourgeois also lets the visitors in her diaries and letters, echoing anxiety, anger, jealousy, hostility, guilt, compassion, gratitude, and love.
Louise Bourgeois in her studio in front of her print Sainte Sebastienne (1992) in Brooklyn 1993. Photo: Philipp Hugues Bonan. Photo courtesy: The Easton Foundation, New York
Organized in three chapters, the showcase begins with the theme Do Not Abandon Me. Bourgeois was traumatized by neglect as a result of her father’s infidelity, separation from her mother who had been her pillar of intellect and protection, and the loss of her own son. The painful death of her mother when she was twenty compelled her to shift from mathematics to art at Sorbonne University, École des Beaux-Arts, École du Louvre, l’ Académie de la Grande Chaumière, and other artists’ academies and studios, including that of Fernand Léger. After marrying American art historian Robert Goldwater and moving to New York in 1938, she embarked on her exhibitions. Soon, she developed precious acquaintances with Le Corbusier, Joan Miró, Marcel Duchamp, and other acclaimed artists. She became the first female sculptor to hold a solo show at the MoMA New York in 1982. Succeeding exhibitions followed at Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (1995), Yokohama Museum of Art (1997), Tate Modern, London (2000), and many others.
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