Xavier Hufkens (Brussels) is pleased to announce an exhibition of late fabric sculptures and gouaches by Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010). For Louise Bourgeois, fabric and sewing held great symbolic significance. Born into a family of tapestry restorers, the artist came to associate sewing with reconstruction, reparation and reconciliation.
In contrast to her earlier bodies of work, in which aggressive acts of separation, like cutting and carving, were predominant, Bourgeois’s late work focused on joining elements together, a restorative act that helped to dispel anxiety and her life-long fear of abandonment.
Bourgeois began making her fabric heads when she was in her eighties. To make these sculptures, which were mostly cut and crafted from the same bolt of cloth, she constructed an inner core and gradually added layers of fabric, hand- stitching the features as the form progressed. The crude stitching, loose threads and raw edges achieve an immediacy and directness that is reminiscent of her drawings. The intense blue of the heads exhibited here represents melancholia, suffering and acédie. It is also the colour of twilight and creativity: the threshold between day and night, conscious and unconscious, and the passage from one state to another.
The largest and most complex piece, Cell XXVIII (Portrait), is typical of the self-enclosed ‘Cell’ structures that became an important feature of Bourgeois’s late work. Made from salvaged architectural materials, and incorporating found objects along with her own fabric sculptures, the assemblages explore a deeply personal narrative, revolving around the themes of architecture, memory, and the five senses.
Louise Bourgeois – Les têtes bleues et les femmes rouges
11.09.2015 – 31.10.2015
Louise Bourgeois, Blue Heads. Courtesy of The Louise Bourgeois Trust, Xavier Hufkens
Louise Bourgeois, Femme, 2007. Courtesy of The Louise Bourgeois Trust, Xavier Hufkens
Louise Bourgeois, Cell XXVI, 2003. Courtesy of Gemeentemuseum Den Haag
Louise Bourgeois, The Birth, 2007. Courtesy of The Louise Bourgeois Trust, Xavier Hufkens
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