Louise Bourgeois, Symbolism and fragments en postmodernitiy

Abstract

All catalogues, monographs or articles about Louise Bourgeois systematically and extensively quote the author, making those excerpts part of her work. Her words seem to suggest a certain control and even a manipulation of the viewer’s vision. With this research I suggest, first, to deliberately avoid her comments in order to understand the characterising features and meanings of her work in total freedom, almost entirely skipping the autobiographical explanations that trivialize its meaning, reducing it to a settling of scores with her past. Secondly, in this study I would like to point out something that no one has yet revealed, nor has the artist herself ever mentioned: the strong links between her art and the master of fragments of symbolist sculpture, Auguste Rodin. This research unveils the discovery of how important the use of stumps or fragments is in 20thC sculpture, as a parallel of our memories reflecting the human fragmentary perception of time.