Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Louise Bourgeois, 1911-2010

Sculptor Louise Bourgeois died over the weekend in NYC at 98 years old. 
This Spider is in the sculpture garden at New Orleans Museum of Art. She produced many other spiders and a vast quantity of sculpture over a long successful career. 
The spider Maman in the plaza of the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa is 10 meters tall.
Her work is strong and emotionally evocative. She was working in her studio until last week. We will miss her greatly.
I took this picture during the last week of 2008. I drove to NOLA with Joli; Ed joined us a day later. We were surprised and pleased to find Prospect New Orleans: P.1 art exhibition spread throughout the city, some of it in the hard hit Lower Ninth Ward, reflections of the devastation of Katrina. 
Planned as a biennial due to rise again as P.2 at the end of 2010, it has already been delayed until 2011 because of New Orleans' continuing economic struggle. The gulf oil spill will only hurt NOLA further. We grieve.
Blow the picture up to great effect.

1 comment:

  1. This may be one of the least well known of her spiders, but the setting surely makes it the spookiest. Great job capturing the mood.

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