LOS ANGELES, CA.- USC Fisher Museum of Art announced the presentation of Louise Bourgeois: What is the Shape of This Problem, from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation, on view from September 6 through December 3, 2022.
Although best known for her profound sculptures of monumental spiders, evocative human figures, and anthropomorphic forms, Louise Bourgeois maintained a prolific drawing and writing practice and an ongoing interest in illustrated books and printmaking throughout the course of her long career.
The exhibition presents 145 works with a focus on prints, textiles, and a series of eight holograms, ranging in date from the 1940s to the early 2000s. These works build on the raw emotional terrain of Bourgeois’ practice and explore feelings of isolation, anger, and fear through the recurring depiction of the body, childhood, family, architecture, and the passage of time.
“What is the shape of this problem?” is a question presented on the opening page of a series of nine letterpress diptychs of image and text produced by Bourgeois in 1999, and in many ways, it is a poignant frame for this exhibition. This question, like much of the text used in her prints, positions these works within Bourgeois’ multi-layered practice of identifying and bravely exploring her personal history, her creative process, and her mental health. These words boldly amplify the parallel between suffering and her art-making, suggesting that abstract emotions can, and should, be given form. It is this acknowledgment that provides the balance of her creative practice and life, an entwined dependence expressing Bourgeois’ emotional and physical intelligence.
Bourgeois described her relationship to making art as one of survival and dependence. She openly acknowledged her vulnerability because it gave her purpose, and the work born from that purpose gave form to her kind of suffering. In relation to this condition of living and working, Bourgeois aptly coined the now famous phrase: “Art is a guarantee of sanity.”
“We are thrilled to partner with the Fisher Museum of Art to share the work of Louise Bourgeois,” said Jordan Schnitzer. “This powerful exhibition exemplifies the artist’s tireless creative process and her relentless pursuit of themes of the body, nature, and emotional trauma.”
Louise Bourgeois: What is the Shape of This Problem is organized by the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation and the Esker Foundation. It is curated by Naomi Potter, Director/Chief Curator, Esker Foundation, Calgary, Canada. The exhibition was first presented at the Esker Foundation, where it ran from January 23, 2021, through June 27, 2021, followed by a presentation at Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at Portland State University from August 31, 2021, through December 2, 2021.
Louise Bourgeois (b. 1911, Paris; d. 2010, New York) is among the most influential artists of the late 20th century. Bourgeois initially studied mathematics at the Sorbonne before studying art at institutions including the École des Beaux-Arts and the École du Louvre. In 1938, she moved to New York, where she would live and work until her death. Bourgeois’ distinguished career included major exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1982); the Frankfurter Kunstverein (1989); the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg (2001); and a career retrospective organized by the Tate Modern, London, and the Centre Pompidou, Paris (2007-8). Bourgeois was named Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French minister of culture in 1983. In 1991, she received the French Grand Prix National de Sculpture, as well as the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Sculpture Center in Washington, D.C. Other accolades include the U.S. National Medal of the Arts (1997) and the French Legion of Honor Medal (2008).
