[Edited 6/1/10 13:58pm]

[Edited 6/1/10 13:12pm]

R.I.P. Awesome Lady.

TheVoid said:

http://www.huffingtonpost...95422.html I know she's not a golden girl or anything like that, but let's take a moment to Appreciate Louise Bourgeois, who died today at 98 years of age.

[Edited 6/1/10 13:58pm]

Stupid ass new editor won't let me edit a post without killing evyerthing, so here's the fixed original post

I will always remember her as in this photo.

[img:$uid]http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i9/jgascot/louise-bourgeois-2.jpg[/img:$uid]

[Edited 6/1/10 14:18pm]

mostbeautifulboy said:

Where is this? Thats AMAZING!

tinaz said:

[Edited 6/1/10 14:22pm]

jone70 said:

tinaz said:

Where is this? Thats AMAZING!

The Tate Modern, I believe. The spider sculptures (she did A LOT of these) are about her mother. The family owned a tapestry business and she had memories of her mother sewing -- note how the tips of the spider's legs look like needles. LB said (I'm paraphrasing/going from memory) that spiders were strong and steely; if their web was destroyed, they didn't get angry they just redid it; which I guess is what her mother did while her father wrecked the household (in Louise's opinion). [Edited 6/1/10 14:21pm]

[Edited 6/1/10 14:22pm]

Thank you for the info! Sounds like she had a sad life Im gonna have to look into her a bit... This is my first at hearing about her...

tinaz said:

jone70 said:

tinaz said:

Where is this? Thats AMAZING!

The Tate Modern, I believe. The spider sculptures (she did A LOT of these) are about her mother. The family owned a tapestry business and she had memories of her mother sewing -- note how the tips of the spider's legs look like needles. LB said (I'm paraphrasing/going from memory) that spiders were strong and steely; if their web was destroyed, they didn't get angry they just redid it; which I guess is what her mother did while her father wrecked the household (in Louise's opinion). [Edited 6/1/10 14:21pm]

[Edited 6/1/10 14:22pm]

Thank you for the info! Sounds like she had a sad life Im gonna have to look into her a bit... This is my first at hearing about her...

She felt it was sad, I suppose; but she came from a comfortable upbringing. Poor Louise, her parents would buy her designer clothes when they would fight to try to outdo one another. Sorry, I should stop. I really dislike her and her work. I mean, everyone has their "cross to bear" and at some point you either 'man up' and deal with it or let it go. She did neither; she decided to be bitter her entire life.

Read this obit in the NY Times for more examples.

jone70 said:

I don't want to speak ill of the dead; but I find her work aesthetically uninteresting and mentally unchallenging/unstimulating. She seemed, to me, to be the type of person who liked to wallow in her own misery. (Based on documentary clips and a film I saw - The Spider, The Mistress, and The Tangerine.) She could never let go of the anger she felt towards her father for having an affair with the family's British nanny (adultry was bad enough, but being French, the fact that the 'other woman' was British added insult to injury) and the fact that her mother basically sat by and allowed it. Maybe she held on to the bitterness for so many decades because without it, she would have had no fodder for her art. I guess it served her well; but it must have been exhausting to be bitter for 80+ years. NB. Before anyone attacks me, I have studied her background & work quite closely as I used to (unfortunately) have to give tours on it. There are very few artists whose works I actively dislike but she's on the short list.

I have never seen this documentry, it screened here last year but I missed it. Is it worth seeing?

I found her cells artwork uninteresting, these seemed to dwell alot on her misery, as you say.

Who else is on your short list of artists whos work you dislike? Just interested

tinaz said:

mostbeautifulboy said:

Where is this? Thats AMAZING!

The Tate Modern, retrospective exhibition in 2007.

She made a load of these sculputures, I have seen photos of them from all over the world.

It was a very cold morning when I went to this exhibition, I remember I snapped this pic with my camera in one hand and a good cup of coffee in the other. The Millenium bridge in the background always looks like part of a spiders web to me.

mostbeautifulboy said:

jone70 said:

I don't want to speak ill of the dead; but I find her work aesthetically uninteresting and mentally unchallenging/unstimulating. She seemed, to me, to be the type of person who liked to wallow in her own misery. (Based on documentary clips and a film I saw - The Spider, The Mistress, and The Tangerine.) She could never let go of the anger she felt towards her father for having an affair with the family's British nanny (adultry was bad enough, but being French, the fact that the 'other woman' was British added insult to injury) and the fact that her mother basically sat by and allowed it. Maybe she held on to the bitterness for so many decades because without it, she would have had no fodder for her art. I guess it served her well; but it must have been exhausting to be bitter for 80+ years. NB. Before anyone attacks me, I have studied her background & work quite closely as I used to (unfortunately) have to give tours on it. There are very few artists whose works I actively dislike but she's on the short list.

I have never seen this documentry, it screened here last year but I missed it. Is it worth seeing?

I found her cells artwork uninteresting, these seemed to dwell alot on her misery, as you say.

Who else is on your short list of artists whos work you dislike? Just interested

Well, I don't really like LB, so I wouldn't necessarily recommend the film. There is one poignant scene where she explains what "the tangerine" in the title refers to (a cruel joke her father used to tell; basically saying he wished she'd had been a boy); but I couldn't get past the fact that she was in her late 80s/early 90s and still whining about her father's affair.

I find all of her work uninteresting! When I was reading the essays and exhibition catalogue in preparation for the exhibition I was really excited to see Destruction of the Father installed, but when I saw it in person it was disappointing -- not nearly as dark and sinister as the writings made it seem. Prior to the exhibition I really knew very little about her -- I think we had glanced over her in undergrad art history and I vaguely remember a show of her "Insomnia" drawings at the Whitney shortly after I moved to NYC, but that was it.

The short list of artists whose work I really don't care for:

Louise Bourgeois

Matthew Barney (Cremaster films)

John Currin

maybe Kehinde Wiley

maybe Vito Acconci

I can't really think of any others at the moment (told you it was short!) I mean, I'm not so crazy about British and Flemish/Dutch landscapes, Christian-themed art, or decorative arts but I don't actively dislike them. I don't even mind Damian Hirst or Joseph Beuys; I love contemporary art (the stuff that makes people think their 5-year old can do it), but for some reason Louise really rubs me the wrong way.