206 / 219
3744*
LOUISE BOURGEOIS
(Paris 1911 - 2010 New York)
Girl with hair. 2007-2009.
Archival dyes printed on silk taffeta. 1/12.
Lower right with embroidered monogram:
LB, as well as numbered on the reverse:
No. 1/12 and inscribed: BOUR-13383.
Size 58.5 x 38 cm.
Literature: Online-catalogue of the Muse-
um of Modern Art, Cat. No. 237.1.
“The people I most admire are interested
in portraits, in the symbolic and recognis-
able unique essence of a person. I, on the
other hand, am interested in the portrait of
a relationship, in how a relationship can be
woven, in the influence which people have
over one another.” (cited Louise Bour-
geois, in: Crone, Rainer/Graf Schaesberg,
Petrus: Louise Bourgeois. Das Geheimnis
der Zelle, Munich, 1998, p. 49)
Wild, irrepressible and defenceless, the
“Girl with Hair” steps towards the viewer.
The wild hair standing in peaks frames
the anonymous face as well as the naked
body of a woman. Nothing in this image is
restrained: not the aggressive red colour,
nor the flowing, spontaneous lines, nor the
composition which fills the page, nor the
defenceless girl. The young woman depic-
ted here enters directly into a relationship
with the viewer, will not let them go, follows
themwith her eyeless gaze. It begs the
question, Towards what? Why? Who? The
viewer is immediately in dialogue with the
image, except that they then automatically
block out the image to protect themsel-
ves. But that is also a form of reaction, of
communicating with the subject.
Louise Bourgeois, one of the most impor-
tant and influential sculptors of the 20th
century, brings together in “Girl with Hair”
some of the central themes of her work.
There are the basic themes of humanity,
such as birth and death, fear and love,
the human body and sexuality. This is why
her works can be understood intuitively,
even if, because of the many layers, they
remain puzzling. The vulnerable femininity
on display, combined with a colour, which
with its red tone and its haziness gives
rise to associations of blood, as well as the
hair reminding us of spider legs, allow for a
multiplicity of interpretations, which makes
the full dimension of this picture hard to
grasp. At the same time, the symbolic ele-
ments touch the viewer very emotionally,
galvanising them: “My work unsettles the
viewer, but no one wishes to be disturbed.”
(ibid, p. 11)
Louise Bourgeois was born in Paris in
1911 and moved with her husband, the
American art historian Robert Goldwater,
to New York in 1938. In the 1920s in Paris,
she had already taken drawing lessons, and
had enrolled initially at the Sorbonne to
study philosophy and mathematics, before
deciding to study art. It was only in 1982, at
the age of 77, that she achieved recogniti-
on as an artist with her first large retros-
pective in the Museum of Modern Art, New
York. Bourgeois attracted wide attention
internationally with her participation in
Documenta 9 in 1992 and the Venice
Biennale in 1993. Today she is one of the
most renowned female artists in the world,
and has been honoured with numerous
international solo shows. Louise Bourgeois
died in New York in 2010.
CHF 50 000 / 70 000
(€ 46 300 / 64 810)
| 94
Prints & Multiples