Louise Bourgeois

This presentation of Louise Bourgeois's (b. Paris, 1911–d. New York, 2010) sculpture and drawings from the permanent collection spans over five decades of her artistic production. Beginning with the Personnages of the 1940s and 50s, her first truly mature artistic efforts, through the works of the 1990s such as Cell V and Defiance (Le Défi) Bourgeois has experimented with a variety of media including drawing, sculpture, and installation. This exhibition coincides with the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao's acquisition of a new monumental work, Maman (2001), installed on the river facade of the museum. Bourgeois's oeuvre, which includes abstract forms based on psychological experiences as well as identifiable representations of worldly items, conveys the bittersweet emotions of life in terms that are at the same time personal and universal.