Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010) was a French-American artist, best known for her sculptural works and highly sexualised explorations in the feminine. With a career spanning over 70 years, Bourgeois’ oeuvre is highly praised as both late modernism and contemporary art.
Though she asserted throughout her life that her work was not feminist, it was highly concerned with the feminine and issues concerning the female experience. ‘Femme Maison’, a series of paintings completed between 1946-47 features female forms that bare houses atop their torsos in place of heads – bodies isolated from the outside world, minds confined to the domestic.
One of Bourgeois’ best-known works is her sculpture, ‘Maman’. Appearing in drawings, printmaking and sculpture, the artist used her spider motif throughout her career. Full of symbolism, the spider as a subject was first a reference to her mother, who was a weaver, before it grew to take on further meaning as a strong female protector against evil.