Louise Bourgeois

Cell VIII

Installation, 1997, 274,3x335x254 cm, Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design

The French American artist Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010) was among the most prominent and significant visual artists of the last century. She is particularly known for her enormous spider sculptures – the largest of which is nearly 10 meters tall and stands outside the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

She often uses close relationships as the point of departure for her art and deals with the great themes, such as sexuality, angst, loneliness, betrayal, grief and jealousy.

The work entitled Cell VIII is part of a series of installations from the 1990s in which Bourgeois problematizes the human being’s relationship to architecture. The cage-like structure is filled with sculptures and textiles, objects from the artist’s own life. The construction is perceived as fundamentally ambivalent, simultaneously protective and disturbingly threatening.

OWG

Quarantania

Painted bronze and stainless steel, 1947 - 1953, 204.5 x 68.6 x 68.6 cm, Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design

© The Easton Foundation, Licensed by BONO, Photo: Christopher Burke

 

 

 

Fée Couturière

Painted bronze, hanging piece, 1963, 100,3 x 57,2 x 57,2 cm, Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design

© The Easton Foundation, Licensed by BONO, Photo: Christopher Burke

Avenza Revisited II

Bronze, silver nitrate and polished patina, 1968 - 1969, 130,8 x 104,1 x 191,8 cm, Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design

© The Easton Foundation, Licensed by BONO, Photo: Christopher Burke