LOUISE BOURGEOIS
17th September – 12th December 2009Louise Bourgeois is one of the most known artists in the modern and contemporary art world.
The widness of her art, reluctant to every classification, is the result of her particular position: between two worlds, between two languages, between female and male, order and chaos…
In her 98th year, Louise Bourgeois presents her last work, Self Portrait, at Galerie Pièce Unique, 4 rue Jacques Callot, 75006 Paris.
All the major topics of her art, like birth, childhood, maternity and selfportrait, take shape in this last work.
On a white linen sheet, embroidered with her initials, Bourgeois has created a clock of 24 hours, representing her life. The hands of the clock stand at 19h11 – the year of her birth.
“It is necessary to recreate the past, in order to get rid of it”, says Louise Bourgeois.
In Self Portrait the memory obeys to a personal logic, based on the emotion and on the reactivation of memories of childhood, couple, maternity and family, all materialised by pieces of fabric etched with dry point and sewn on the sheet.
The 24 images placed at each hour of the clock reveal the history of her childhood, going through her wedding and her children and getting finally to the predominant themes of her art.
From Louise Bourgeois young girl, to Louise Bourgeois mother, the 24 main moments of her life are examinated. It is Time passing by. And, like the Parcae teach (the 3 mythological Goddesses who hold the human destiny in their hands) : if the thread gets cut, it is the end of the story.
