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Louise Bourgeois

Spiral

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Description

Spirals are a recurring motif in the work of Louise Bourgeois including her sculpture, painting, and drawings from as early as the 50s through 2010 the year of her death....

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Details

  • ISBN: 9788862086448
  • Language: English
  • Pages: 80
  • Illustrations: 48
  • Binding: Clothbound with jacket
  • Release: November 2018
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Spirals are a recurring motif in the work of Louise Bourgeois including her sculpture, painting, and drawings from as early as the 50s through 2010 the year of her death. This book, which accompanied an exhibition at Cheim & Read, New York, is the first to focus on Bourgeois’ use of the spiral which she has described as “an attempt at controlling the chaos. It has two directions. Where do you place yourself, at the periphery or at the vortex?” The spiral is simultaneously “the fear of losing control” and the experience of “giving up control; of trust, positive energy, of life itself.” In another book Bourgeois is quoted as saying “The spiral is important to me. It is a twist. As a child, after washing tapestries in the river, I would turn and twist and wring them… Later I would dream of my father’s mistress. I would do it in my dreams by wringing her neck. The spiral — I love the spiral — represents control and freedom.” In materials as diverse as wood, steel, bronze, latex, marble, plaster, resin, hemp, lead, ink, pencil, crayon, woodcut, watercolor, and gouache, Bourgeois investigates every imaginable manifestation of the spiral, from graphic patterns to graphite whorls, wobbly orbits to chiseled vortices, twisted columns to coiling snakes, staircases, and pyramids. The cursive blue-paper word drawings, in English and French, complement the purely visual works by conveying the spirit of Bourgeois’ poetry in extraordinary pictorial forms.

Louise Bourgeois was born in Paris in 1911 and lived in New York from 1938 until her death in 2010. She was named Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French minister of culture in 1983. Other honors included the Grand Prix National de Sculpture from the French government in 1991; the National Medal of Arts, presented to her by President Bill Clinton in 1997; the first lifetime achievement award from the International Sculpture Center in Washington, DC; and election as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1993 she was chosen to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale. Her work appears in the most important museum collections worldwide and has been the subject of several major traveling retrospectives organized by the Tate Modern, London, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Kunstverein, Frankfurt.

Shipments are made worldwide by express courier.

Delivery is expected within 7 working days after registration of payment.

Shipping costs vary depending on the weight of the shipment and the country of destination, and are calculated automatically when the order is placed.

Pursuant to Article 5 of Legislative Decree No. 185 of 22 May 1999, if the customer is a consumer (i.e. a natural person who purchases goods for purposes not related to his or her professional activity, or who makes a purchase by omitting a VAT number from the order form), he or she has the right to withdraw from the purchase contract for any reason whatsoever, without the need to provide explanations and without any penalty, within 14 working days from the day of receipt of the goods.

The right of withdrawal shall be exercised by sending, within the aforementioned term, a written notice to the geographical address of the supplier's registered office by means of a registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt. The communication may also be sent, again within the same deadline, by means of a PEC or facsimile.
The consumer shall enclose with the communication all the references of the order (order date, order number, precise references identifying the party concerned, company or private individual.
The goods you wish to return must be undamaged and in their original packaging.

The consumer must also supplement the communication with his or her complete bank details in order to obtain reimbursement of the sums paid (current account number, ABI and CAB, CIN code; for foreign countries, the BIC and IBAN codes), which will be carried out as quickly as possible and in any case within fourteen days of the date on which the supplier became aware of the consumer's exercise of the right of withdrawal. As the only charge for exercising the right of withdrawal, the consumer shall bear the direct cost of returning the goods. In the case of payment by credit card, the sums shall be returned net of bank commission charges (2.5%).

In the event of a dispute, reference will be made to the competent court.

  • Description

    Spirals are a recurring motif in the work of Louise Bourgeois including her sculpture, painting, and drawings from as early as the 50s through 2010 the year of her death. This book, which accompanied an exhibition at Cheim & Read, New York, is the first to focus on Bourgeois’ use of the spiral which she has described as “an attempt at controlling the chaos. It has two directions. Where do you place yourself, at the periphery or at the vortex?” The spiral is simultaneously “the fear of losing control” and the experience of “giving up control; of trust, positive energy, of life itself.” In another book Bourgeois is quoted as saying “The spiral is important to me. It is a twist. As a child, after washing tapestries in the river, I would turn and twist and wring them… Later I would dream of my father’s mistress. I would do it in my dreams by wringing her neck. The spiral — I love the spiral — represents control and freedom.” In materials as diverse as wood, steel, bronze, latex, marble, plaster, resin, hemp, lead, ink, pencil, crayon, woodcut, watercolor, and gouache, Bourgeois investigates every imaginable manifestation of the spiral, from graphic patterns to graphite whorls, wobbly orbits to chiseled vortices, twisted columns to coiling snakes, staircases, and pyramids. The cursive blue-paper word drawings, in English and French, complement the purely visual works by conveying the spirit of Bourgeois’ poetry in extraordinary pictorial forms.


  • The author

    Louise Bourgeois was born in Paris in 1911 and lived in New York from 1938 until her death in 2010. She was named Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French minister of culture in 1983. Other honors included the Grand Prix National de Sculpture from the French government in 1991; the National Medal of Arts, presented to her by President Bill Clinton in 1997; the first lifetime achievement award from the International Sculpture Center in Washington, DC; and election as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1993 she was chosen to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale. Her work appears in the most important museum collections worldwide and has been the subject of several major traveling retrospectives organized by the Tate Modern, London, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Kunstverein, Frankfurt.


  • Shipping

    Shipments are made worldwide by express courier.

    Delivery is expected within 7 working days after registration of payment.

    Shipping costs vary depending on the weight of the shipment and the country of destination, and are calculated automatically when the order is placed.


  • Return and refund

    Pursuant to Article 5 of Legislative Decree No. 185 of 22 May 1999, if the customer is a consumer (i.e. a natural person who purchases goods for purposes not related to his or her professional activity, or who makes a purchase by omitting a VAT number from the order form), he or she has the right to withdraw from the purchase contract for any reason whatsoever, without the need to provide explanations and without any penalty, within 14 working days from the day of receipt of the goods.

    The right of withdrawal shall be exercised by sending, within the aforementioned term, a written notice to the geographical address of the supplier's registered office by means of a registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt. The communication may also be sent, again within the same deadline, by means of a PEC or facsimile.
    The consumer shall enclose with the communication all the references of the order (order date, order number, precise references identifying the party concerned, company or private individual.
    The goods you wish to return must be undamaged and in their original packaging.

    The consumer must also supplement the communication with his or her complete bank details in order to obtain reimbursement of the sums paid (current account number, ABI and CAB, CIN code; for foreign countries, the BIC and IBAN codes), which will be carried out as quickly as possible and in any case within fourteen days of the date on which the supplier became aware of the consumer's exercise of the right of withdrawal. As the only charge for exercising the right of withdrawal, the consumer shall bear the direct cost of returning the goods. In the case of payment by credit card, the sums shall be returned net of bank commission charges (2.5%).

    In the event of a dispute, reference will be made to the competent court.