After a long and prolific life and career, the influential artist Louise Bourgeois died in New York City on May 31 at the age of 98.  She worked up until the very end of her life, as her studio director noted that she had just completed pieces last week.

Ms. Bourgeois created sculptures using various materials, including fabric, bronze, rubber, and wood.  Her large bronze spider structures, entitled Maman, are most well-known and have been installed in a range of cities.  Her work is psychological, emotional, and expressive, and often of sexual themes and body based work.

Image of Louise Bourgeois and her sculpture, from the documentary « Louise Bourgeois : l’araignée, la maîtresse et la mandarine »

Her artwork often recalls psychological themes rooted in her childhood.  Louise Bourgeois was born in Paris in 1911 to parents who owned a gallery for antique tapestries.  Her parents are prevalent in her artwork as she relates some of the pain and suffering that came with her childhood –having an adulterous father whose affair with the children’s nanny implanted deep seated anger and anxiety in Louise.  In her artwork, she bares her psyche, and the result is fascinating.

Ms. Bourgeois was not recognized for her work until later in life, around the age of 70.  The New York Museum of Modern Art mounted an exposition of her work in 1982, making Louise Bourgeois the first woman sculptor featured by the museum.  She participated in the Venice Biennale in 1993, representing the United States, and soon became more renowned as a crucial figure for women in the art world.

Maman, outside the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao

She attended the Sorbonne for mathematics, but later left to pursue art.  Ms. Bourgeois and her husband, American art historian Robert Goldwater, married in 1938 and moved to New York City where she continued to pursue her artistic career.  It was not until after her husband’s death that she became widely acknowledged for her work.  She taught at many New York universities including Columbia, Cooper Union, and Yale where she received an honorary award as Doctor of Fine Arts in 1977.

Louise Bourgeois’ poignant work is strong yet delicate; violent yet vulnerable. Ms. Bourgeois has inspired scores of contemporary artists and she is considered as one of the world’s most important female artists.