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| Louise Borgeois |
Louise Bourgeois (1912-2010)
by Valery Oisteanu
Sculptures are almost melting, crying of loneliness
Aggressive ecstasy and malicious joy
Gigantic spiders stand still, in a frozen position
The spider-mother had passed into infinity
Mirrors reflecting other mirrors, as a portal
The old doors that were never opened
Her octagonal room a sequence of doors
Move slowly, almost invisible, closing opening
Two dark limbs are chopped off
And lay there on a slab of dark granite
The grand dame of Confessional art
With the dark latex phallus under her arm
Talks to Freud and Lacan, May 31, 2010
Something dark and uneasy about her
Her head appears like a surreal house
No eyes but windows, no face but steps
A garden of phalluses grows under her
She will harvest them on a full moon
Eccentric, sadistic, abstract-geometric
Totemic, Iconic, Ironic
All of that and much more
The Louise we knew, will not return.
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| Maman, Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao. |
The Spider is an ode to my mother. She was my best friend. Like a spider, my mother was a weaver. My family was in the business of tapestry restoration, and my mother was in charge of the workshop. Like spiders, my mother was very clever. Spiders are friendly presences that eat mosquitoes. We know that mosquitoes spread diseases and are therefore unwanted. So, spiders are helpful and protective, just like my mother.
– Louise Bourgeois
Louise Joséphine Bourgeois, French-American artist and sculptor, nicknamed the "Spiderwoman" for her spider structures or Maman, died of heart failure on 31 May 2010 at the age of 98. She is credited as the founder of "confessional" art, best known for her disturbing and symbolic sculptures exploring birth, sexuality and death from a woman's point of view.
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