Fig.62 Cell V 1991 Painted wood and metal 233.6 x 182.8 x 182.8 cm Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York Fig.63 Opposite Cell VII 1998 Mixed media 207 x 220.9 x 210.8 cm Friedrich Christian Flick Collection
Fig.127 Femme Maison 1946–7 Oil and ink on linen 91.5 x 35.5 cm Private collection
Fig.128 Femme Maison 1945–7 Oil and ink on linen 91.5 x 35.6 cm Private collection
Fig.129 Femme Maison 1946–7 Ink on Linen 91.5 x 35.5 cm Collection of Ella M. Foshay
Fig.130 Femme Maison 1946–7 Oil and ink on linen 91.5 x 35.5 cm Private collection
Fig.181 Right Untitled 2002 Fabric and steel 27.3 x 12.7 x 10.1 cm Fig.182 Below Femme Couteau 2002 Fabric, steel and wood 22.8 x 69.8 x 15.2 cm Dr Gianfranco and Monica D’Amato, Naples/Paris Fig.183 Opposite Endless Pursuit 2000 Blue fabric and thread 45.7 x 30.4 x 30.4 cm Collection Ursula Hauser, Switzerland
Fig.187 Red Night 1946–8 Oil on canvas 76 x 152.5 cm Daros Collection, Switzerland
Fig.188 Regrettable Incident in the Louvre Palace 1947 Oil on canvas 35.9 x 91.4 cm Fig.189 Untitled 1946–7 Oil on canvas 81 x 246 cm Kröller-Müller Museum, The Netherlands
Fig.194 Passage Dangereux 1997 (details) Mixed media 264 x 355.5 x 876.5 cm Collection Ursula Hauser, Switzerland
Fig.207 Red Fragmented Figure 1953 Painted wood and stainless steel 158.8 x 22.2 x 26 cm Collection Ursula Hauser, Switzerland Fig.208 Far right Figure 1954 Painted wood and stainless steel 119.3 x 30.5 x 30.5 cm The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Fig.260 Spider 1997 Steel, tapestry, wood, glass, fabric, rubber, silver, gold and bone 445 x 666 x 518 cm Private collection, courtesy Cheim & Read, New York
a seat placed in the centre, hang empty bottles of Shalimar perfume (Bourgeois’s favourite), a broken medallion, a stopped watch and a sculpture reminiscent of one of the artist’s earliest installations, Articulated Lair 1968 (fig.243). As in Passage Dangereux 1997 (fig.193), the spectator enters a locus of memory whose content is strongly autobiographical. The work is structured in a chain of metonymic and metaphorical rapprochements (spider-weaving-tapestry-mother-spider) combined with formal and thematic dichotomies (rigidity of the grid/ baroque fluidity of the legs/ transparency/ protector/ predator). Spider is a large-scale installation contained within its own architectural, visual and narrative unit. The autonomous territory that it constitutes, protected by the spider, creates a form of interference within the museum space. On the subject of her Cells, Bourgeois explains: ‘I wanted to create my own architecture, and not depend on the museum space, not have to adapt my scale to it. I wanted to constitute a real space which you could enter and walk around in.’1 Vincent Honoré
Fig.261 Opposite Spider 2003 Steel and tapestry 45.5 x 59.5 x 64.7 cm Collection Carolee and Nathan Reiber Fig.262 Spider 1947 Ink and charcoal on tan paper 29.2 x 22.2 cm Private collection 1 Bernadac 1998, p.38.
Spirals
‘The spiral is the beginning of movement in space.’ Kirili 1989, p.74 ‘The spiral is somebody who doesn’t have a frame of reference. The only thing is this hanging, this fragility.’ Interview with Robert Storr, c.1990 ‘The spiral is important to me. It is a twist. As a child, after washing the tapestries in the river, I would turn and twist and ring them with three others or more to ring the water out. Later I would dream of getting rid of my father’s mistress. I would do it in my dreams by ringing her neck. The spiral – I love the spiral – represents control and freedom.’ Gardner 1994, p.68
Spiral Women
A recurring theme within Bourgeois’s work, the spiral has been described by the artist as ‘an attempt at controlling the chaos.’ The Spiral Women Bourgeois made in the early 1950s are sculptures made of layers of wood fixed to vertical steel supports. Winding around their supports like vertebrae, the spiraling wooden columns suggest abstracted figures and imply a sense of suspension, both of which become literal in the sculpture of the same title made in 1984 (fig.264). Here, a small bronze figure hangs at roughly headheight from a wire attached to the ceiling, directly above a slate disc that is positioned on the floor. Freely suspended in space, the figure is bound by a thick coil, with only her limbs visible. This Spiral Woman, visually reminiscent of the doll-like movie heroine caught in the mighty grip of ‘King Kong’, is forever trapped in the spiral, hanging in mid-air, suspended and spinning in a constant state of dizzying indecision. Is she a victim of her own making? Bourgeois has identified with the Spiral Woman: ‘This is what it means: She hangs up in the air. She turns around and she doesn’t know her left from her right. Who do you think it represents? It represents Louise. This is the way I feel … she is herself, hanging, waiting for nobody knows what.’ 1 Ann Coxon 279
1 Interview with Nigel Finch, 1993, in Bourgeois 1998, pp.257–8.
Louise Bourgeois Edited by Frances Morris With essays by Paulo Herkenhoff, Julia Kristeva, Donald Kuspit, Elisabeth Lebovici, Frances Morris, Mignon Nixon, Linda Nochlin, Alex Potts, and Robert Storr With contributions by Marie-Laure Bernadac, Katherine Brinson, Lynne Cooke, Ann Coxon, Josef Helfenstein, Brooke Hodge, Vincent Honoré, Rosalind Krauss, Philip Larratt-Smith, Lucy Lippard, Scott Lyon-Wall, Bernard Marcadé, Daniel Milman, Louise Neri, Philippe Pelletier, Lawrence Rinder, Jonas Storsve, Phyllis Tuchman, Marina Warner, and Deborah Wye Rizzoli Electa A Division of Rizzoli International Publications, Inc. 300 Park Avenue South New York, NY 10010 www.rizzoliusa.com In association with the Tate Modern, London ISBN: 978-0-8478-6615-1 $45.00 Paperback, 8¼ x 10½ inches 320 pages 304 illustrations Rights: North American For serial rights, images to accompany your coverage, or any other publicity information about this title please contact: Pam Sommers, Executive Director of Publicity T. (212) 387-3465, psommers@rizzoliusa.com