Louise Bourgeois
dal 16/7/2014 al 11/10/2014
Segnalato da
16/7/2014
Louise Bourgeois
Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art - Mima, Middlesbrough
The exhibition features the works taken from 'Artist rooms', an inspirational collection of modern and contemporary art acquired for the nation by Tate and the National Galleries of Scotland, including Couple I 1996; Cell XIV (Portrait) 2000; Eyes 2001-2005; and three late masterpieces - 10 am Is When You Come To Me 2006; the cycle of 16 monumental drawings A L'Infini 2008-2009; and one of Bourgeois' final works, Untitled 2010.
mima is proud to announce a major presentation of works by the great American
artist Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010) in an exhibition from 18 July to 12 October
2014. mima is the first associate partner to display this new ARTIST ROOMS
exhibition.
Highlighting her late work, the exhibition contains an outstanding collection of pieces
assembled for the national ARTIST ROOMS programme, including Couple I 1996;
Cell XIV (Portrait) 2000; Eyes 2001-2005; and three late masterpieces – 10 am Is
When You Come To Me 2006; the cycle of 16 monumental drawings A L'Infini 2008-
2009; and one of Bourgeois’ final works, Untitled 2010.
Louise Bourgeois was named as one of the ten most subversive women artists in
history by the Guardian and has influenced many of today’s artists such as Jenny
Holzer and Tracey Emin. Her work is often seen in the context of Surrealism, and
she has been cited as “the last great surrealist” (Jonathan Jones, the Guardian).
The works on display are taken from ARTIST ROOMS, an inspirational collection of
modern and contemporary art acquired for the nation by Tate and the National
Galleries of Scotland through the generosity of Anthony d'Offay with additional
support from funders, including the Art Fund. The ARTIST ROOMS tour programme,
now in its sixth year, is showing at 18 museums and galleries across the UK in 2014.
The tour is made possible thanks to the support of Arts Council England and the Art
Fund.
Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010) was born in France and studied with Fernand Léger
in Paris during the 1930s. She moved to New York in 1938, following her marriage
to art historian Robert Goldwater, who died in 1973.
Despite the deeply personal references to her own life in her work, as well as to a
range of art historical movements, Bourgeois’ unique visual language ultimately
reaches beyond both, raising universal questions about life and art. In particular,
ideas of womanhood and its various guises – including the roles of daughter, wife,
mother and lover – are explored through a vocabulary of recurring motifs: spiders,
spirals, the ‘arch of hysteria’, double forms and entwined fabric bodies. The
materials Bourgeois chose to use, including traditional bronze and marble, as well as
fabrics, rubber and found objects, were an essential part of her practice, often
employed radically to highlight the interplay between opposites such as male and
female, father and mother, soft and hard, exterior and interior, fear and calm, and
vulnerability and strength.
It was not until 1982 that Bourgeois began to receive wider public attention. That
year, the Museum of Modern Art in New York gave her a retrospective, their first for
a woman artist, and subsequently, major exhibitions of her work were organised in
Europe. Bourgeois was also the first artist to be commissioned by Tate Modern for
the inauguration of its Turbine Hall. In 2007, Tate, in collaboration with the Centre
Pompidou, organised a travelling retrospective of her work.
This exhibition has been organised in collaboration with Jerry Gorovoy of the artist’s
The Easton Foundation, which has very generously lent a number of major sculptural
works including Spiral Woman 1984 and Spider 1994, and the Louise Bourgeois
Studio.
The exhibition will be supported by a special gallery guide created by a group of
Middlesbrough’s young people, bespoke family activities using mima’s family trolley
and a number of adult talks and workshops. To find out more please see
www.visitmima.com/bourgeois.
To find out more information about ARTIST ROOMS On Tour please visit
www.artfund.org/artistrooms. To see the full ARTIST ROOMS collection please visit
www.tate.org.uk/artistrooms and www.nationalgalleries.org/artistrooms.
mima
mima, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, is an internationally renowned gallery,
which opened in 2007 to bring together Middlesbrough's collections. With a policy of
accessible excellence, mima exhibits, commissions and collects world-class modern
and contemporary art from 1900 to the present day: its collections focus particularly
on drawing, ceramics and jewellery. mima is a partner in the Plus Tate visual arts
network and is funded primarily by Middlesbrough Council and Arts Council
England.
ARTIST ROOMS
ARTIST ROOMS exhibitions and displays are from the collection assembled by
Anthony d’Offay. ARTIST ROOMS is owned jointly by Tate and the National
Galleries of Scotland and was established through The d’Offay Donation in 2008,
with the assistance of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Art Fund and the
Scottish and British Governments. ARTIST ROOMS On Tour has been devised to
enable this collection to reach and inspire new audiences across the country,
particularly young people.
Arts Council England
Arts Council England champions, develops and invests in artistic and cultural
experiences that enrich people’s lives. It supports a range of activities across the
arts, museums and libraries – from theatre to digital art, reading to dance, music to
literature, and crafts to collections. Great art and culture inspires us, brings us
together and teaches us about ourselves and the world around us. In short, it makes
life better. Between 2011 and 2015, Arts Council England will invest £1.4 billion of
public money from government and an estimated £1 billion from the National Lottery
to help create these experiences for as many people as possible across the country.
www.artscouncil.org.uk
The Art Fund
The Art Fund is the national fundraising charity for art, helping museums to buy and
show great art for everyone. Over the past 5 years it has given over £26m to help
museums and galleries acquire works of art for their collections and placed hundreds
of gifts and bequests, from ancient sculpture and treasure hoards to Old Master
paintings and contemporary commissions. It awarded £1 million towards the original
acquisition of the ARTIST ROOMS collection and has been instrumental in ARTIST
ROOMS on Tour since its inception in 2009. It is independently funded, the majority
of its income coming from over 100,000 members who, through the National Art
Pass, enjoy free entry to over 220 museums, galleries and historic houses across
the UK, as well as 50% off entry to major exhibitions.
Image: Louise Bourgeois CELL XIV (PORTRAIT), 2000 (detail) Steel, glass, wood, metal and red fabric 188 x 121.9 x 121.9 cm. ARTIST ROOMS Tate and National Galleries of Scotland. Lent by the Artist Rooms Foundation 2011 Photo: Christopher Burke, © The Easton Foundation/Licensed by DACS
Find out more about the Art Fund and the National Art Pass at www.artfund.org.
Please contact Madeline Adeane, the Press Relations Manager, on 020 7225 4804
or madeane@artfund.org.
Press Preview: 11am, Thursday 17 July.
Exhibition Preview 6 - 8pm, Thursday 17 July.
mima, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art
Centre Square, Middlesbrough TS1
Tues, Wed, Fri & Sat 10am–4.30pm
Thurs 10am–7pm
Sun 12noon–4pm
Closed Mon (including Bank Holidays)