I can understand why she made her "spider" sculptures so large to challenge the viewer's space. Stieg Larrson focused in on the abuse and victimization of women his fictionalized best seller "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and it seems perhaps somewhere in Bourgeois's psyche the theme is there but she turns it around and through her work finds feminine power using symbology and space to make art audiences think, often by challenging their space, making them move their gaze upward or by moving around her work rather than the traditional approach of gazing at a portrait at eye level. Her work has an intense physicality about it, not dainty as she talks about powerfully charged issues but again that is for the over achieving art audience. She had just completed her newest work and she is survived by two sons and a grandchild. The New York Times has a well written piece on her passing by Holland Cotter that is worth reading.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Louise Bourgeois Dies
Louise Bourgeois died Monday at Beth Israel Hospital here in Manhattan at age 98. Bourgeois like her work has endured. Her sculptures are deeply psychology and clearly conflicted on sexuality, male-female relations, reproduction, issues of safety and spacial relations.
I can understand why she made her "spider" sculptures so large to challenge the viewer's space. Stieg Larrson focused in on the abuse and victimization of women his fictionalized best seller "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and it seems perhaps somewhere in Bourgeois's psyche the theme is there but she turns it around and through her work finds feminine power using symbology and space to make art audiences think, often by challenging their space, making them move their gaze upward or by moving around her work rather than the traditional approach of gazing at a portrait at eye level. Her work has an intense physicality about it, not dainty as she talks about powerfully charged issues but again that is for the over achieving art audience. She had just completed her newest work and she is survived by two sons and a grandchild. The New York Times has a well written piece on her passing by Holland Cotter that is worth reading.
I can understand why she made her "spider" sculptures so large to challenge the viewer's space. Stieg Larrson focused in on the abuse and victimization of women his fictionalized best seller "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and it seems perhaps somewhere in Bourgeois's psyche the theme is there but she turns it around and through her work finds feminine power using symbology and space to make art audiences think, often by challenging their space, making them move their gaze upward or by moving around her work rather than the traditional approach of gazing at a portrait at eye level. Her work has an intense physicality about it, not dainty as she talks about powerfully charged issues but again that is for the over achieving art audience. She had just completed her newest work and she is survived by two sons and a grandchild. The New York Times has a well written piece on her passing by Holland Cotter that is worth reading.
