The Tomb of a Young Person

The wood version of this present work was included in Bourgeois's first solo sculpture show in October 1949 at the Peridot Gallery. She showed seventeen pieces made of simply yet artfully constructed upright beams and poles, which would later be known as "personages." One critic commented on them: "Although the human form is reduced to elemental terms in these works, great variety of mood and gesture is conveyed by subtle changes in contour and slight inclinations of the body." (Cited in D. Wye, Louise Bourgeois, exh. cat., New York, 1982, p. 18.)

These personages have a totemic quality where Bourgeois has transformed qualities of the living into inanimate matter, thus creating a vital presence in her sculptures. Wye has observed the connection between Bourgeois and the primitive mentality: "Bourgeois's concept of sculpture pertains to the vivid clarity of her emotions and the need for concreteness in their release. For Bourgeois a plank of wood can, on some level, be identified as a replacement for a specific person rather than as a symbol of that person. The impulse to work on this level of transference and embodiment is her link to the primitive world." (Ibid, p. 19.) In fact, this particular work was borne from the artist's anxiety of a mother over the well-being of her child. She has stated, "The Tomb of a Young Person expresses fear, a kind of protective exorcism for the health of my children." (Quoted in M. Bernadac, Louise Bourgeois, Paris, 1996, p. 54.)


Fig. 1 Cy Twombly, Untitled, 1959