by Jon Lackman | 27 April 2007 | Books, Contemporary
At least one prominent art historian believes that “our leading sculptor, male or female, in the United States today is by all odds Louise Bourgeois.” We read that “In October 2007 Tate Modern presents the first major survey since 1995 of the work of the French-born artist Louise Bourgeois.” (According to Artnet, the show will travel to Paris, New York, and L.A.) Louvre curator Marie-Laure Bernadac writes, in her new book on Bourgeois, that “Current infatuation with her work is probably exaggerated — not in terms of artistic quality, but in terms of media hype — and seems inversely proportional to the neglect she suffered … Recognition of Louise Bourgeois’s work could only come with the emergence of a new sensibility typical of the ‘post-modern generation’ that advocated a return to subjectivity, to a form of expressionism, to an eclecticism perceived as liberating in the fact of strict formalist norms. This new focus on the self — observed in recent decades following a loss of values and the collapse of ideologies — mainly stresses the body, organic forms, and sexuality, all realms in which Bourgeois was a pioneer … Bourgeois’s special status also stems from her feminist stance … The fact that a female artist, wife and mother of three children, could attain such fame reinforces her singularity … Paradoxically, it is probably this long period of neglect that enabled Bourgeois to achieve her artistic task … The final string to her bow is her age: that a woman over 80 possesses such creative energy and visual inventiveness, constantly anticipating the concerns of younger generations, reinforces her position as precursor and visionary, confirming once again the theory that certain great artists experience a cyclical return to youthfulness in old age.”
