Louise Bourgeois: a balance between extremes
Her creative work can be “psychologically disturbing, sexually loaded and wickedly funny” according to a recent interview article, in which artist Louise Bourgeois talked about her emotional and social influences:
“My work is a form of psychoanalysis. It is a way of coming to grips with my anxiety and fears. It is an attempt to be a better person.
“There is a lot of ambivalence in the work. There are many hanging pieces, which signify a fragile state. There are pieces that oscillate and rock, which also convey fragility.
“We all have pink days and blue days. I am trying to seek a balance between the extremes that I feel. I want to be reasonable.
“I think many things that are going on in the world today feed into the work, but many times unconsciously. My work is not an illustration of anything but rather it expresses an emotional state, good or bad.
“The form, the content and the material are entwined. They are inseparable from what I want to say. Each material offers different possibilities of expression. It is like playing a piano in different keys. I have no interest in materials as such, and I don’t privilege one over the other.
“The only obligation we have is to express what we feel to the best of our ability. It must be true and it must be authentic.”
From article: Life’s lessons – Louise Bourgeois, 95, reflects upon her art and all that still goes into it. By Suzanne Muchnic, Los Angeles Times, June 3, 2007
Photo of Bourgeois by Nanda Lanfranco / Bourgeois Studio
Sculpture: Blind Man’s Buff, 1984
Books on her work:
Louise Bourgeois by Robert Storr
Louise Bourgeois by Marie-Laure Bernadac
Related Talent Development Resources pages:
Depth psychology
Healing & art
Interview article: The Psychology of Creativity – Stephen A. Diamond, Ph.D. says “The more conflict, the more rage, the more anxiety there is, the more the inner necessity to create. We must also bear in mind that gifted individuals, those with a genius (incidentally, genius was the Latin word for daimon, the basis of the daimonic concept) for certain things, feel this inner necessity even more intensely, and in some respects experience and give voice not only to their own demons but the collective daimonic as well.”
