EN
Portrait of the artist, circa 1944
Portrait of the artist, circa 1944

There probably is no contemporary artist who so relentlessly expresses their emotions through their artistic work quite like Louise Bourgeois. Thoughts which cannot be adequately expressed by words are transferred into a concrete/physical form so that the outside world can share in Bourgeois’ inner life. Her principal themes are the fundamental existential questions we ask ourselves concerning birth and death, love and hate, the human body and sexuality. Therefore, her works are instantly relatable whilst remaining mysterious through their complexity. She often uses symbols and metaphors whose core meaning seems straightforward. However, at the same time, she leaves the observer completely in the dark with no way of knowing whether his or her interpretations really lead to an in depth understanding of the work. The variety of applied techniques strengthens the experimental aspect of Bourgeois' work. Her practice is not only focused on sculpture but also includes drawing, painting and printmaking.

Louise Bourgeois was born in 1911 in Paris. Her works were first widely recognised in the US, especially in New York, where she lived from 1938 onwards. In 1982, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, showed the first retrospective of her work, which led to further exhibitions throughout the US and, starting in 1989, also in Europe. She became particularly well-known internationally following her participation in the documenta 9 in Kassel, Germany, in 1992 and the 1993 Venice Biennale. Today, she is one of the most renowned female artists in the world. Numerous museums have honoured her with important solo exhibitions. Louise Bourgeois died in New York in 2010.

Exhibitions

Publications

Biography

Biography
1911

Born in Paris, France

1938

Move to New York, USA

1955

On October 4, Louise Bourgeois becomes an American citizen

2010

Died in New York, USA on May 31
 

Education
1921 - 27

Lycée Fénelon and Collège Sévigné, Paris, France

1932 - 35

Sorbonne, Paris, France

1934

Paul Colin (1892 – 1985)

1936 - 37

Atelier Roger Bissière de l’Académie Ranson, Paris, France

1936 - 38

École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France (Studies with André Devambez and Colarossi)
 

1936 - 38

Académie de la Grande-Chaumière, Paris, France (Assistant to Yves Brayer)
 

1937 - 38

Académie de la Grande-Chaumière, Paris, France (Study of painting with Othon Friesz and sculpture with Wlérick)
 

1937 - 38

Trained as a lecturer at the Ecole du Louvre, Paris, France

1937

Académie Julian, Paris, France

1938

Académie Scandinavie, Paris, Frankreich, (Studies with Charles Despiau)
 

1938

Atelier Fernand Léger (1881 – 1955)

1938

Marcel Gromaire (1892 - 1971) and André Lhote (1885 – 1962)

1939 - 40

The Art Students League of New York, USA, (Studies with Vaclav Vytlacil)

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions
2023-24
Louise Bourgeois

Unteres Belvedere, Vienna, Austria

2022
Louise Bourgeois. The Woven Child

Hayward Gallery, London, UK

2022
Louise Bourgeois: Paintings

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA

2022
Louise Bourgeois x Jenny Holzer. The Violence of Handwriting Across a Page

Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel, Switzerland

2021
Louise Bourgeois

Galerie Karsten Greve Paris, France

Learn more
2021
Louise Bourgeois: What is the Shape of This Problem, From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation

Esker Foundation, Calgary, Canada

2021
Louise Bourgeois, Freud’s Daughter

Jewish Museum, New York, NY, USA

2020-21
Louise Bourgeois

Galerie Karsten Greve AG, St. Moritz, Switzerland

Learn more
2020-21
Louise Bourgeois: Deslaçar Um Tormento

Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto, Portugal
 

2019
Louise Bourgeois in the Rijksmuseum Gardens

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

2019
Artist rooms: Louise Bourgeois

Tate Modern, London, UK

2019-20
Louise Bourgeois: To Unravel a Torment

Museum Voorlinden, Den Haag, The Netherlands

2019
Louise Bourgeois: The Eternal Thread

Song Art Museum, Beijing, China

2018-19
Louise Bourgeois: To Unravel a Torment

Glenstone Museum, Potomac, MD, USA

2018
Louise Bourgeois. The Empty House

Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin, Germany

2018
Louise Bourgeois. Works on paper

Galerie Karsten Greve Cologne, Germany

2018
Louise Bourgeois. Editions

Galerie Karsten Greve Paris, France

2018
Louise Bourgeois

ICA Miami – Institute of Contemporary Art Miami, Miami FL, USA

2017-18
Louise Bourgeois. An Unfolding Portrait

Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA

2017
Louise Bourgeois. Twosome

Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel

2017
Louise Bourgeois, Spiders

SFMOMA, San Francisco, CA, USA

2017
Louise Bourgeois. Human Nature: Doing, Undoing and Redoing

Kistefos Museum, Jevnaker, Norway

2016-17
Louise Bourgeois. Structures of Existence. The Cells

Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark

2016
Louise Bourgeois. Structures of Existence. The Cells

Guggenheim Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain

2015-16
Louise Bourgeois. No Exit

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C, USA

2015
Louise Bourgeois. Structures of Existence. The Cells

Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany

2015-16
Louise Bourgeois. Structures of Existence. The Cells

Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia

2015
Louise Bourgeois. I Have Been to Hell and Back

Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden

2015
Louise Bourgeois. I Have Been to Hell and Back

Museo Picasso, Málaga, Spain

2014-15
Louise Bourgeois. Suspension

Cheim & Read, New York, NY, USA

2014
Artist Rooms: Louise Bourgeois. A Woman Without Secrets

Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, Middlesbrough, UK

2013-14
Artist Rooms: Louise Bourgeois. A Woman Without Secrets

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

2013-14
Louise Bourgeois: Alone and Together

Faurschou Foundation, Copenhagen, Denmark

2013-14
Louise Bourgeois – I give everything away

The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

2013
Louise Bourgeois. Editions

Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne, Germany

2013
Louise Bourgeois, Rare and Important Works from a Private Collection

Galerie Karsten Greve Paris, France

2012-13
Louise Bourgeois. Alone and Together

Faurschou Foundation, Bejing, China

2012
Louise Bourgeois: Honni Soit Qui Mal Y Pense

La Casa Encendida, Madrid, Spain

2012-13
Between the Lines. Graphikfolgen von Louise Bourgeois

Graphische Sammlung der ETH Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland

2012-13
Louise Bourgeois: Late Works

Heide Museum of Modern Art, Bulleen, Australia

2012
Louise Bourgeois - Passage dangereux

Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany

2012
Louise Bourgeois: Conscious and Unconscious

QM Gallery Katara, Doha, Qatar

2012
Louise Bourgeois: The Return of the Repressed

Freud Museum, London, UK

2012
Louise Bourgeois: Personages

Kukje Gallery, Seoul, South Korea

2012
Louise Bourgeois 1911 - 2010

Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

2011
Louise Bourgeois: The Return of the Repressed

Fundación Proa, Buenos Aires, Argentina; travelled to: Instituto Tomie Ohtake, Sao Paulo, Brazil; Museu do Arte Moderno, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

2011-12
Louise Bourgeois: À l’infini

Fondation Beyeler, Riehen (Basel), Switzerland

2011
Louise Bourgeois. Femme

National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland

2011
The Fabric Works

Cheim & Read, New York, NY, USA

2011-10
Louise Bourgeois: Les Fleurs

Kukje Gallery, Seoul, South Korea

2011
Louise Bourgeois: Suites on Fabric

Marlborough Graphics, London, Great Britain

2011
“THE DAMNED, THE POSSESSED AND THE BELOVED” (installation)

Vardo, Norway

2010
Hans Bellmer – Louise Bourgeois: Double Sexus

Sammlung Scharf - Gerstenberg, Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany; travelled to: Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag, The Netherlands, Wexner Center for the Arts, The Ohio State University in Columbus, OH, USA

2010
Louise Bourgeois: Mother and Child

Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA, USA

2010
Louise Bourgeois: The Fabric Works

Fondazione Vedova, Venice, Italy; Hauser & Wirth, London, UK

2010
Do Not Abandon Me: Louise Bourgeois / Tracey Emin Collaboration

Carolina Nitsch Project Room, New York, NY, USA; Hauser & Wirth Colnaghi, London, UK

2010
Louise Bourgeois. Skulpturen und Zeichnungen

Städtische Museen Jena, Jena, Germany

2010
Louise Bourgeois

Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA, USA

2010
The Place of the Witches / The Witches of Finmark

Memorial Vardo,  Vardø, Norway

2010
Louise Bourgeois: Moi, Eugénie Grandet

Maison de Balzac, Paris, France

2010
Graphic on fabric and paper

Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne, Germany

2010
Louise Bourgeois: Mother and Child

Nordiska Akvarellmuseet, Skärhamm, Sweden; Kunstforeningen, Copenhagen, Denmark
 

2009
A Stretch of Time. 40 Years Karsten Greve Cologne

Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne, Germany

2009
Louise Bourgeois

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., USA

2008
Louise Bourgeois

Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples, Italy

2008
Louise Bourgeois

Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France

2007-09
Louise Bourgeoise: Retrospective

Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, USA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angles, CA, USA; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C., USA

2007
Louise Bourgeois : Fugue

Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern, Switzerland

2007
Louise Bourgeois: Quarantania 1947/1990

Galerie Christine König, Vienna, Austria

2007
Bourgeois in Boston

The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA, USA

2007
Louise Bourgeois: Abstraction

Kukje Gallery, Seoul, South Korea

2007
Louise Bourgeois

Storm King Art Centre, Mountainville, NY, USA

2007
Louise Bourgeois: New Works

Hauser & Wirth, London, Great Britain

2007
Louise Bourgeois: Recent Prints

Marlborough Graphics, London, Great Britain

2006-07
Crouching Spider by Louise Bourgeois

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, USA

2006
Louise Bourgeois

Galerie Lelong, Paris, France

2006
Louise Bourgeois

Peter Blum Gallery, New York, NY, USA

2006
Louise Bourgeois

Butler Gallery, Kilkenny, Ireland

2006
Louise Bourgeois: The Woven Child

Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Great Britain

2006
Louise Bourgeois

Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD, USA; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland

2006
Louise Bourgeois: La Famille

Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany

2006
Louise Bourgeois

The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA, USA

2005-06
Centre of Gravity

Istanbul Modern, Istanbul, Turkey

2005-06
Louise Bourgeois: Back and Forth

Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria

2005
Louise Bourgeois: Sublimation

Hauser & Wirth, London, Great Britain

2005
Louise Bourgeois: Topiary, the Art of Improving Nature

Memphis College of Art, Memphis, TN, USA

2005
Louise Bourgeois: Prints

Xavier Hufkens Gallery, Brussels, Belgium

2005
Louise Bourgeois: Selected Prints 1989 - 2005

Marlborough Fine Art, London, Great Britain

2005
Louise Bourgeois

Kukje Gallery, Seoul, South Korea

2005
Louise Bourgeois: Fabric and Paper Works

Galleri Stefan Andersson, Umeå, Sweden

2005
Louise Bourgeois: Prints

Dunn and Brown Contemporary, Dallas, TX, USA

2005
Louise Bourgeois: Prints and Drawings

Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA, USA

2005
Louise Bourgeois: Prints

Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne, Germany

2005
Louise Bourgeois: One and Others

Wilfredo Lam Center, Havana, Cuba

2004-05
Louise Bourgeois: Prints

Galerie Karsten Greve, Paris, France

2004
Louise Bourgeois: Drawings, Books, Prints

Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern, Switzerland

2004
Louise Bourgeois

Centre de la Gravure et de l'Image Imprimée, La Louvière, Belgium

2004
Louise Bourgeois. Sculpture and drawing

Trinitatiskirche, Cologne, Germany

2004
Louise Bourgeois: Selections from the Ginny Williams Collection

Metropolitan State College, Denver, CO, USA

2004
Louise Bourgeois

Daros Exhibitions, Zurich, Switzerland

2004
Drawings by Louise Bourgeois

St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO, USA

2004
Louise Bourgeois

Akira Ikeda Gallery Muranchi, Yokosuka, Japan

2004
Louise Bourgeois: The Reticent Child

Cheim & Read, New York, NY, USA

Group exhibitions
2022
Into the New. Being Human: From Pollock to Bourgeois

Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

2022
Subterranean

Amos Rex, Helsinki, Finland
 

2022
Garmenting: Costume as Contemporary Art

MAD - Museum of Arts and Design, New York, USA
 

2022
Marble

Kunsten Museum of Modern Art, Aalborg, Denmark
 

2022
Retromemória

Museu de Arte Moderna (MAM) of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

2021
Matières en lumière. Sculptures de Rodin à Louise Bourgeois

Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland

2021
Women in Abstraction

Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France

2021
The Greek Gift

DESTE Foundation, Centre for Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece

2021-22
Mother!

Kunsthalle Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany

2021
Nature Culture

Fondation Beyeler, Basel, Switzerland

2020
Fantastic women. Surreal worlds from Meret Oppenheim to Frida Kahlo

Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt a. M., Germany

2020-22
Au rendez-vous des amis - Modernism in dialogue with contemporary art from the Sammlung Goetz

Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany

2020
I’m yours: Encounters with Art in Our Times

ICA Boston, Boston MA, USA

2020
On Everyone's Lips. From Pieter Bruegel to Cindy Sherman

Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany

2020
Fantastic Women. Surreal Worlds From Meret Oppenheim to Frida Kahlo

Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark

2019-20
The Red Bean Grows In The South

Faurschou Foundation, New York, NY, USA

2019
Beyond Infinity. Contemporary Art After Kusama

ICA – Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston MA, USA

2019
Susanna Koeberle vous propose Elisabeth Kübler

jevouspropose, Zurich, Switzerland
 

2019
Luogo e Segni

Palazzo Grassi, Punta della Dogana, Venice, Italy

2019
A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women

Muzeum Susch, Susch, Switzerland

2018-19
In the Cut - The male body in Feminist Art

Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken, Saarbrücken, Germany

2018-19
Winter Show

Galerie Karsten Greve AG, St. Moritz, Switzerland

2017-18
The Women House

Monnaie de Paris, Paris, France

2017-18
Pick & Pocket. Small is Beautiful

Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne, Germany

2017
Autumn Show

Galerie Karsten Greve AG, St. Moritz, Switzerland

2017
Inextricabilia Enchevêtrements magiques

La Maison Rouge, Paris, France

2017
Spring Show

Galerie Karsten Greve AG, St. Moritz, Switzerland

2017
Women at Play in the Fields of Abstraction

Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA

2017
Traumata. Bourgeois / Kusama

Sotherby’s, London, UK

2017
The Inner Skin. Art and Shame

Museum Marta Herford, Herford, Germany

2017
Innovation and Abstraction: Women Artists and Atelier 17

Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

2017
No Place Like Home

The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel

2017-18
Winter Accrochage

Galerie Karsten Greve AG, St. Moritz, Switzerland

2017-18
Life into Art: Post-Dada Works from the Collection

The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel

2016
Fall Accrochage

Galerie Karsten Greve AG, St. Moritz, Switzerland

2015-16
Looking Forward Looking Back

New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM, USA

2015-16
À l’ombre d’Eros, une histoire d’amour et de mort

Monastère royal de Brou, Ville de Bourg-en-Bresse, France

2015
Avatar and Atavism. Outside the Avantgarde

Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Dusseldorf, Germany

2015
Beyond Horizon. Reflexion on the horizontal line

Galerie Karsten Greve, Paris, France

2015
Louise Bourgeois, Maria Lassnig, Nancy Spero – Another Normal Love

Barbara Gross Galerie, Munich, Germany

2015-16
Looking Forward Looking Back

New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM, USA

2015-16
An Imagined Museum: works from the Centre Pompidou, the Tate and the MMK collections

Tate Liverpool, UK; travelled to: MMK - Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am. Main, Germany, Centre Pompidou, Metz, France

2014
The Nakeds

Drawing Room, London, UK

2013-14
IN PRINCIPIO

Kunsthalle Rostock, Rostock, Germany

2013
Word + Work

Galerie Nächst St. Stephan, Vienna, Austria

2013
Les Papesses

Palais des Papes, Avignon, France

2013
Munch by Others

Haugar Art Museum, Tonsberg, Norway

2013
Ein Wald der Skulpturen. Die Sammlung Simon Spierer

Angermuseum Erfurt, Germany

2013
Religion, Ritual, and Performance in Modern and Contemporary Ar

The Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH, USA

2012-13
Judy Chicago and Louise Bourgeois, Helen Chadwick, Tracey Emin

Ben Uri Gallery, London, UK

2012-13
From Death to Death and Other Small Tales

National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

2012-13
Von Kopf bis Fuß – Porträts und Menschenbilder in der Sammlung Würth

Kunsthalle Würth, Schwäbisch Hall, Germany

2012-13
The Supersurrealism

Moderna Museet, Malmö, Sweden

2012-13
Nude Men from 1800 to the present day

Leopold Museum, Vienna, Austria

2012-13
The Naked Man

Lentos Kunstmuseum, Linz, Austria

2012-13
El factor grotesco

Museo Picasso, Málaga, Spain

2012-13
Art on Paper 2012: The 42nd Exhibition

Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC, USA

2012
A House of Leaves. First Movement

The David Roberts Art Foundation, London, UK

2012
Von Sinnen. Wahrnehmung in der zeitgenössischen Kunst

Kunsthalle zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany

2012
Bronze

Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK

2012
Pictures from the Moon

New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY,USA

2012
Art of Another Kind: International Abstraction and the Guggenheim, 1949 – 1960

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, USA

2012
From Picasso to Koons. Artist’s Jewellery

Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece

2012
Les feux de l'amour

FRAC - Collection Aquitaine, Bordeaux, France

2012
Circus Wols

Weserburg - Museum für moderne Kunst, Bremen, Germany

2012
Look Now: Modern and Contemporary Art from Private Collections

Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ, USA

2012
Louise Bourgeois and Michelangelo

Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence, Italy

2012
In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA, USA

2012
Exquisite Corpses: Drawing and Transfiguration

MoMA - The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA

2012
Off the Beaten Path: Violence, Women and Art

Redline Art Center, Denver, CO, USA

2011-14
Contemporary Galleries: 1980 – Now

MoMA - The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA

2011
Off the Beaten Path: Violence, Women and Art

Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL, USA

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