Sad news: Legendary Paris-born, New York-based sculptor Louise Bourgeois passed away today in Manhattan at the age of 98. According to the Associated Press, Bourgeois worked up until the end, completing new works only last week before suffering a heart attack Saturday night. She passed away at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City.
Born in Paris in 1911 to parents who owned a tapestry restoration business, Bourgeois studied at the Academie des Beaux-Arts prior to marrying American Art Historian Robert Goldwater and moving to New York in 1938. Bourgeois' sculptures tend to be primitive-like in style and sexually and emotionally charged.
My very first exposure to Bourgeois was seeing Robert Mapplethorpe's 1982 portrait of the artist with Fillette (1968), her latex sculpture of a large phallus tucked coolly and defiantly under her arm at Mapplethorpe's controversial 1990 exhibition at Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art. I was immediately smitten. I have the 2008 documentary Louise Bourgeois: The Spider, The Mistress and The Tangerine saved on my DVR queue. I'll watch it tonight in honor of the grande dame. See the film's trailer here and read the AP article here.
Sadly, Bourgeois' death comes just days after Dennis Hopper succumbing to his long battle with prostate cancer. The iconic actor and filmmaker was also an accomplished artist. Read my post about his show Signs of the Times presented last September at Tony Shafrazi here and see his NYT's obit here. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, on July 11th the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art will present Art is Life, a survey of Hopper's artwork curated by his friend Julian Schnabel. Definitely check it out if you happen to be on the west coast. Hopper passed away Saturday, May 29th at his home in Venice, California at the age of 74.
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