Louise Bourgeois Gets Ready To Ditch the Canvas

Bourgeois is widely acclaimed as one of the vital sculptors of the 20th century, and her life of nearly a century resulted in a rich body of work. Her paintings can seem amateur by comparison, yet they also deliver clues about what is to come.     

Louise Bourgeois, ‘Roof Song’ (1946-48). © The Easton Foundation/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

“Louise Bourgeois: Paintings,” which opened this week at the Metropolitan Museum, profiles an artist en route to her final vocation. Encompassing the years between 1938 and 1949 to a scale not seen in four decades, this exhibit demonstrates that artists do not spring forth fully formed. Their genius often requires gestation. Like a Silicon Valley founder, artists need to iterate before they triumph.

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