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
-
Sundance Film Festival 2025: The films we can't wait to watchSundance Film Festival, which runs 23 January - 2 February, has long been considered a hub of cinematic innovation. These are the ones to watch from this year’s premieres
-
Wellness takes to the skies and the high seas in this concept superyacht and private jet retrofitHigh-end mobility design pivots to minimalist calm and life-affirming ambience as wellness trends take hold. The Sea Rover yacht and Afterglow private jet point the way
-
Tour 21 lesser-known modernist houses in EuropeTake a tour of some of Europe's lesser-known modernist houses; architectural writer and curator Adam Štěch leads the way, discussing the 20th-century movement's diversity under a single vision
-
Inside Jack Whitten’s contribution to American contemporary artAs Jack Whitten exhibition ‘Speedchaser’ opens at Hauser & Wirth, London, and before a major retrospective at MoMA opens next year, we explore the American artist's impact
-
Frieze Sculpture takes over Regent’s ParkTwenty-two international artists turn the English gardens into a dream-like landscape and remind us of our inextricable connection to the natural world
-
Portrait of a modernist maverick: last chance to see the Jean Cocteau retrospective in Venice‘Cocteau: The Juggler’s Revenge’, celebrating the French artist's defiance of artistic labels, is in its final week at Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice
-
Louise Bourgeois’ work is in conversation with ancient art in RomeGalleria Borghese's 'Louise Bourgeois: Unconscious Memories' is its first exhibition dedicated to a contemporary female artist and the first devoted to Bourgeois in Rome
-
Yoshitomo Nara’s skittish universe takes over the Guggenheim Bilbao Museum‘Yoshitomo Nara’ at the Guggenheim Bilbao Museum is the first major European retrospective to explore four decades of the Japanese artist’s oeuvre
-
Harlem-born artist Tschabalala Self’s colourful ode to the landscape of her childhoodTschabalala Self’s new show at Finland's Espoo Museum of Modern Art evokes memories of her upbringing, in vibrant multi-dimensional vignettes
-
Wanås Konst sculpture park merges art and nature in SwedenWanås Konst’s latest exhibition, 'The Ocean in the Forest', unites land and sea with watery-inspired art in the park’s woodland setting
-
Pino Pascali’s brief and brilliant life celebrated at Fondazione PradaMilan’s Fondazione Prada honours Italian artist Pino Pascali, dedicating four of its expansive main show spaces to an exhibition of his work
