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The Arts Intel Report

Louise Bourgeois: Nature Study

Louise Bourgeois, Les Fleurs, 2009.

July 6 – Oct 6, 2024
Compton Verney CV35 9HZ, United Kingdom

Louise Bourgeois (1911–2010) is best known for her giant sculptures of looming bronze spiders, which represent her mother, all mothers who weave their loved ones into a web of protection. But she went way beyond the arachnid, producing watercolors, textiles, painting, and other sculptures tirelessly over seven decades. “I am not what I am,” Bourgeois once said, “I am what I do with my hands.” This exhibition highlights the artist’s versatility with 40 works in diverse media, on loan from museums around the world, many never before seen in the U.K. The theme here is nature, and for Bourgeois that meant the horrors of the human body as well as the curves and swells of organic forms. —Elena Clavarino

Photo: Christopher Burke/© The Easton Foundation/Licensed by DACS, U.K.