Louise Bourgeois Sculptor Louise Bourgeois

Louise Bourgeois

Sculptor Louise Bourgeois was born in 1911 in Paris, where she studied at a number of different art academies. In 1938, she relocated to the United States, where she continued her studies in New York at the Art Students League. While she has worked prolifically in a number of mediums, her best-known work is her sculptural output. Bourgeois's work is featured in the permanent collections of numerous museums all over the world.

Heavily influenced by surrealism as well as minimalism and conceptual practices, Bourgeois's main theme is that of childhood - namely her own. She has widely been regarded as the "mother" of feminist identity art in the United States.

Her process often involves raiding the darker recesses of her own psyche and presenting her findings in a symbolic sculptural language.

Cell (Choisy) is emblematic of Bourgeois's concerns with personal identity and childhood. This sculptural installation is made of marble, metal, and glass, and measures at 120 1/2 x 67 x 95." It was completed between the years of 1990 and 1993.

Cell (Choisy) is meant to commemorate the childhood home of Bourgeois. It features an effigy of the home outside of Paris where she grew up, rendered in pale pink marble. But something is terribly wrong - the house has been enclosed behind an imposing mesh iron cage, clearly meant to ward off visitors. Above the entrance to the house is a guillotine blade, which the door to the cage threatens to trip should anyone enter. The overall effect is one of loneliness and the macabre.