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Lot Essay
While experiencing terrible loneliness and homesickness during the 1940s in New York, Louise Bourgeois shifted naturally from drawing to sculpture in order to rid herself of her past. This new method of expression immediately enabled her to resurrect the people she missed in the form of abstract sculptures, to create a few shadows of the past.
Mortise is one of Bourgeois' earliest works and is an incredible example of the complexity of her creativity. Not only an embodiment of a shadow of the past, Mortise also highlights the deepest aspects of her personality and allows dramatic memories of her childhood to appear.
Mortise was first executed in wood, and the verticality of the clustered pieces of wood evokes the infinite. Despite the difference of their size, when all the pieces of wood are assembled, they create a tension which forces the viewer to contemplate the absolute.
Bourgeois considers color as a subliminal communication stronger than language. The colors here used are very expressive. Red is an affirmation of rebellion, of aggression, a symbol of the intensity of emotions. Black is mourning, regrets, guilt, retreat. The mix of these colors expresses the intensity of her pain.
Fig. 1 David Seidner, Louise Bourgeoius's studio interior, 2000. c The Estate of David Seidner 2001
Mortise is one of Bourgeois' earliest works and is an incredible example of the complexity of her creativity. Not only an embodiment of a shadow of the past, Mortise also highlights the deepest aspects of her personality and allows dramatic memories of her childhood to appear.
Mortise was first executed in wood, and the verticality of the clustered pieces of wood evokes the infinite. Despite the difference of their size, when all the pieces of wood are assembled, they create a tension which forces the viewer to contemplate the absolute.
Bourgeois considers color as a subliminal communication stronger than language. The colors here used are very expressive. Red is an affirmation of rebellion, of aggression, a symbol of the intensity of emotions. Black is mourning, regrets, guilt, retreat. The mix of these colors expresses the intensity of her pain.
Fig. 1 David Seidner, Louise Bourgeoius's studio interior, 2000. c The Estate of David Seidner 2001