Now, the mirror cannot be your enemy, the mirror has to be your friend, otherwise you are badly off.

So, I have lived in a house without mirrors because I couldn’t stand, I couldn’t accept myself. “There’s a quote from Louise: ‘Mirror means the acceptance of the self.

Below, we talk to ten female artists and designers who have found inspiration in Bourgeois, not only through their encounters with her work but also the intrepid example she set as an artist daring to reveal uncomfortable truths. Recalling Bourgeois’ recurring fascination with spiders as a motif, the arachnid represents ideas of motherhood and weaving, complicated by the spider’s associations as both predator and preserver.Īs an artist who so profoundly expanded the visual language around the bodily, psychological, and emotional experience of womanhood, boldly examining the darkest recesses of her internal landscape, Louise Bourgeois has had a far-reaching influence on generations of women who’ve recognised aspects of their most private selves articulated in her work. The dramatic installation “Spider” (1997) incorporates fragments of antique tapestry, enmeshed with history and meaning.

Including over 90 artworks, this major survey of Bourgeois’ textile work includes her famed Cells series, in which an arrangement of her old dresses and nightwear invites the viewer into an intimate view of the artist’s personal history.

Louise bourgoise osketch f a bird nest