Louise Bourgois was 97 when she made the last of her Cell works in 2008, two years before she died.
In Cell (The Last Climb), an open door leads into a rusty wire cage. It’s not a prison but a gateway; inside, a spiral staircase leads up and out of the cage to the sky, and large blue glass balls are suspended like bubbles waiting to float free. At the centre of the cage is a brilliant blue rubber droplet like a giant tear – not falling but buoyed by this sense of floaty lightness – which Bourgeois described as a self-portrait.
For an artist who said she made art as a means of survival and a way of confronting fear, this work, a clear metaphor for death, is remarkably uplifting. It’s not fraught with anxiety, in the way that her works that typically explore unconscious emotions surrounding childhood memories, growing up, sex and motherhood are. Bourgeois worked tirelessly through her 70s, 80s and 90s with an urgent combative energy that one can only marvel at here. Perhaps by 2008 she was finally ready to let go.
Bourgeois created 60 Cells. Of the 28 on display at the Guggenheim Bilbao, most were created in the last two decades of her life. Each Cell is a world; a stage set to either be contained in, journeyed through, peeked voyeuristically into, or be excluded from.
They are precise, contained, and complete spaces, featuring sculpture and objects that Bourgeois owned or gathered to tell autobiographical stories. Some are more literally based on memories than others. One draws on a memory of her parents' bedroom, another features a marble replica of her childhood home with a guillotine poised above it, anticipating a moment when it might all disappear.
Frank Gehry’s gallery interior, a seemingly endless maze of rooms and corridors that curve and twist, grow and shrink, is an invitation to get lost. That suits Bourgeois’ work down to the ground, because it’s never about what's outside, but always the warped, shape-shifting unpredictability of her interior world.
Like a spider’s web, this world is a place of seductive, horrible beauty. Inevitably you are drawn into it, and as you are you begin to see that the unconscious world she was exploring has its own own internal logic. Repeating symbols – mirrors (confrontation of the self), doors (secrets and safety), limbs (impotence), spiders (the mother) – become a language, which help you to interpret her reality. Eventually a bigger picture emerges. The show, like the body itself, is a place of trauma and escapism, fear and magic: both prison and refuge.
In Cell (The Last Climb) (pictured), an open door leads into a rusty wire cage. It’s not a prison but a gateway – this work, a clear metaphor for death, is surprisingly uplifting. Pictured: Cell (The Last Climb), 2008. Courtesy Collection National Gallery of Canada and The Easton Foundation / VEGAP, Madrid
Bourgeois worked tirelessly through her 70s, 80s and 90s with an urgent combative energy that one can only marvel at here. Pictured: Louise Bourgeois inside (Articulated Lair), which she considered the first of her Cells, in 1986. Courtesy The Easton Foundation / VEGAP, Madrid
Spider, 1997. Courtesy The Easton Foundation / VEGAP, Madrid
Bourgeois created 60 Cells. Of the 28 on display at the Guggenheim Bilbao, most were created in the last two decades of her life
Each is a world, like a stage set, to either be contained in, journeyed through, peeked voyeuristically into, or be excluded from
They are precise, contained, and complete spaces, featuring sculpture and objects that she owned or gathered to tell autobiographical stories
Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim interior is a maze of rooms and corridors that curve and twist. That suits Bourgeois’ work down to the ground, because it’s never about what's outside, but always the warped, shape-shifting unpredictability of her interior world
Red Room (Parents), 1994. Courtesy The Easton Foundation / VEGAP, Madrid / Private Collection and Hauser & Wirth
INFORMATION
'Structures of Existence: The Cells' is on view until 4 September. For more information, visit the Guggenheim Bilbao's website
ADDRESS
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
Abandoibarra Etorb., 2
48009 Bilbao
Bizkaia, Spain
-
Find yourself at Six Senses Kyoto, the brand's breathtaking Japan debutSix Senses Kyoto opens its doors boasting tranquil, luxurious interiors by Blink Design Group
-
Shigeru Ban’s mini Paper Log House welcomed at The Glass House'Shigeru Ban: The Paper Log House' is shown at The Glass House in New Canaan, USA as the house museum of American architect Philip Johnson plays host to the Japanese architect’s model temporary home concept
-
Artist Mickalene Thomas wrestles with notions of Black beauty, female empowerment and love'Mickalene Thomas: All About Love’, a touring exhibition, considers Black female representation
-
Peter Blake’s sculptures spark joy at Waddington Custot in London‘Peter Blake: Sculpture and Other Matters’, at London's Waddington Custot, spans six decades of the artist's career
-
Don’t miss: ‘The Mother & The Weaver’ dissects the complexity of motherhood‘The Mother & The Weaver’ at the Foundling Museum, London, looks at the complex role of the mother in art from the Ursula Hauser Collection
-
Oozing, squidgy, erupting forms come alive at Hayward Gallery‘When Forms Come Alive: Sixty Years of Restless Sculpture’ at Hayward Gallery, London, is a group show full of twists and turns
-
New glass sculpture creates a verdant wonderland at Apple’s Cupertino HQ‘Mirage’ at Apple Park is the work of Zeller & Moye and artist Katie Paterson, a shimmering array of glass columns that snakes through the grounds of the company’s monumental HQ
-
Man Ray’s sculptures go on show in New York‘Man Ray: Other Objects’ opens at Luxembourg + Co, New York, revealing their author’s ‘artistic revolution’
-
The best London art exhibitions to see nowYour guide to the best London art exhibitions, as chosen by the Wallpaper* arts desk
-
Erwin Wurm’s pop-coloured fantasy land at Yorkshire Sculpture ParkIn Erwin Wurm’s first UK museum show, ‘Trap of the Truth’, the artist transforms Yorkshire Sculpture Park into a slightly warped wonderland (10 June 2023 – 28 April 2024)
-
Sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro transforms Fendi’s Rome HQ into a theatre of myth and magicFendi’s Roman HQ sets the scene for ‘Il Grande Teatro delle Civiltà’ a major show by Italian sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro, who has also created a one-off edition of the house’s iconic Peekaboo bag. Read more in the July 2023 Issue of Wallpaper*, on newsstands 8 June
