Untitled, from ACT UP Art Box, 1994

Louise J. Bourgeois was a French-American artist and sculptor. She was extremely influential in modern and contemporary art and she became publicly recognized as the founder of the confessional art movement.

She studied art at several reputable schools including Academie de la Grande Chaumiere, Ecole du Louvre, and Ecole des Beaux-Arts. After marrying her American husband, Robert Goldwater, and moving to New York City, Louise Bourgeois turned her focus to sculpture. During this time, her artistic creations would often exude themes of loneliness, anxiety, and betrayal.

She often used junkyard scraps and driftwood that she would then carve into upright wood sculptures. Bourgeois would cover the impurities of the wood with paint and then use nails to create holes and scratches in the piece to articulate a certain emotion. One great example of her work is a piece entitled, “Sleeping Figure”. The piece depicts a war veteran who is unable to face the real world due to vulnerability.

In 1954, Bourgeois joined the American Abstract Artists Group. Her membership in the group was the catalyst for her making the transition from wood and upright structures to marble, bronze, and plaster. Bourgeois often rejected the idea that her art was feminist, however many of her works, such as Janus Fleuri (1968) proved that she wasn’t timid about celebrating the female body or using the female form in new ways. Later in life, Bourgeois added teaching to her resume as she obtain instructional positions at the several higher education institutions, including Cooper Union and the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting, and Sculpture. She also taught for many years in the public school system in Great Neck, Long Island. One of her most recognizable pieces is a work called “The Destruction of Father.'' (Artist website)