5 things we can learn from Louise Bourgeois

Lessons in life and art from the legendary artist.

“Every day you have to abandon your past or accept it, and then, if you cannot accept it, you become a sculptor.” –– Louise Bourgeois

The extraordinary artist Louise Bourgeois was born in Paris in 1911, and lived for nearly 100 years. Throughout her radical seventy-year career she worked with a range of mediums, including sculpture, printmaking, and textiles, in works that were bold, innovative, and unflinchingly honest.

There is so much we can learn from her life and legacy. Read on for some classic Louise wisdom… Xoxo, Katy

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1. Keep a diary

Louise Bourgeois wrote her first diary entry when she was 12 years old, and never stopped. She had three types of journals — “the written, the spoken (into a tape recorder), and my drawing diary.”

Writing helped her to confront and process her trauma and anxiety — she felt that “you can stand anything if you write it down.”

This compulsive recording was crucial for her creative practice. She turned to her journals again and again to inform her artworks, which were so often an expression of her deepest emotions, desires, and fears. She would even physically weave diary excerpts into her artworks — see I Am Afraid (2009).

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2. Don’t be afraid of honesty

Louise thought that the values of honesty and integrity should be at the very centre of all art. As a result, she made works that are acutely personal and vulnerable; sometimes brutal, but always true.

“I like to be a glass house. There is no mask in my work. Therefore, as an artist, all I can share with other people is this transparency.”

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3. Spiders aren’t so bad

The spider — which many people might think of as scary — is a key motif in Bourgeois’ work. She was very fond of the eight-legged creatures, seeing them as helpful, friendly presences; clever creators that mend and protect. In these ways, they reminded her of her dear mother:

“Like a spider, my mother was a weaver.  My family was in the business of tapestry restoration, and my mother was in charge of the workshop. Like spiders, my mother was very clever. Spiders are friendly presences that eat mosquitoes. We know that mosquitoes spread diseases and are therefore unwanted. So, spiders are helpful and protective, just like my mother.”

This is Bourgeois’s 30 feet tall sculpture of a spider, titled Maman.

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4. How to peel a tangerine – and make a feminist statement

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5. Never stop learning

Louise was incredibly knowledgeable about a range of topics, including mathematics (which she studied at the Sorbonne!), psychoanalysis — and, of course, art.

A 1990 diary entry reveals her passion for learning:

“You learn for yourself, not for others, not to show off, not to put the other one down. Learning is your secret. It is all you have. It is the only thing you can call your own. Nobody can take it away.”

Learning = power = freedom.

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Eager to learn more? You can listen to the GWA podcast episode on Louise Bourgeois with the brilliant Jo Applin here. I’ve also discussed her work with guests Charlie Porter and Siri Hustvedt.

And even more Louise content for you below:

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This TateShots on her life and work

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Her 2003 interview with Paulo Herkenhoff

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The brilliant documentary, The Spider, The Mistress and The Tangerine (trailer below)

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I just love this 1982 portrait of a rather mischievous-looking Bourgeois, taken by Robert Mapplethorpe. In her words, “the glint in the eye refers to the thing I’m carrying.”

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