The Week - UK (2022-02-19)

28 ARTS

THEWEEK19 February 2022

Art

In thecourseof her longcareer,the

French-born artistLouiseBourgeois

tackled“tabooafter taboo”,said

HettieJudahinThe iPaper.At a

time whenwomen were rarely

granted avoiceto venttheiranger

in public,Bourgeois(1911-2010)

usedher art tochannelher

anxieties and frustrationsabout

everythingfrom “sexualityto

maternalambivalence, todepres-

sion totheageingbody”,bringing

to light the violentpsychological

undercurrentsthat, inherview,

lay beneathtraditionalgenderand

family roles.Recognitioncamelate:

it wasonlyinthe1990sthat she

startedtobecome the influential

figurethatsheistoday.Around

thistime,whenshe was wellinto

her 80s, Bourgeoisbeganrifling

through the closetsofher New

Yorkhomeforoldtextiles–

tapestries,stuffeddolls,bedlinen–

and reconfiguringthemintosinister

sculpturesandarrangements:silk

frocksand slips were“suspended

like animalsinsidecages”,berets

“stuffedfatuntiltheyresembled

breasts”,smallknitted figures

positionedinfrontofacurved

mirror,so asto seem “likefloating

charactersinanightmare”.This

new exhibitionat the HaywardGallery isthe first toconcentrate

on these strikingandfrequentlyharrowingtextile works.It brings

togetherawealthof installations,sculptures andtextilepieces

Bourgeois createdin thefinaldecadesof herlife.The endless

gloomy Freudian symbolismcan getrepetitive, “butmy God,

whenBourgeoisisgood itgives youshivers”.

The power ofher imageryisundeniable,said Alastair Sookein

The DailyTelegraph.The“menacing,claustrophobic” sculptures

and installationsthat makeup theshowoften have anuncanny

effect:onepieceheresees“afurry,

off-whitehousemushrooming

fromthewombof aheadless and

dismemberedfemaletorso”;

anotherhasa“vast” steelspider–

atrademark Bourgeoismotif–with

“wobbly,arthritic” legscrouching

atopacagecontaining“fabric-

wrapped glass eggs”.Elsewhere,

her fabricheads resembleBrancusi

sculptures“imprisoned inagimp

mask”.Yetforalltheshocking

intent, there’ssomethingjarringly

“tasteful”aboutmuch ofthis

work:it feels “tailor-made fora

collector’sapartment” and hasan

“elegance”ratherat odds with its

uglysubjectmatter.Bourgeois’s

art aims toconjure upa

“psychological horrorfest”,yet

hereitistoo“slick” toever feel

“properlydisturbing”.

Idisagreeentirely,saidAdrian

Searle inThe Guardian.Bourgeois’s

workis“marvellous,scaryand

provocative” and itsimpactis

rarelyless thanvisceral.

Throughouttheshow,she revisits

her “traumas and jealousies”,

notablyher childhoodfuryat

her gallery-ownerfather’sserial,

undisguisedadulteryandthe

suffering itcaused herseamstressmother (whose profession

informed Bourgeois’sownuse oftextiles).Everywhere you look,

thereare“figures andlegsdangling fromtheceiling orhungout

on stands”,fabric headshanging“like decapitations”,and“ratty

old fabrics” reshaped toevoke herchildhood memories.Bobbins,

needlesand thread are usedto make sculptures“that recallthe

cosmographiesofJoanMiró”.In her later years,increasingly

agoraphobic,Bourgeois“rarelystrayedfromhome.But thework

keptcoming.” Itmakesfor“awonderful,oftensurprisingand

sometimesfrighteningexhibition”.

Exhibitionof the weekLouiseBourgeois:TheWovenChild

HaywardGallery,LondonSE1 (020-38799555,southbankcentre.co.uk).Until15 May

©THE EASTON

FOUNDATION_VAGA

AT ARS,

NY. DACS

2021

News fromtheartworld

Amajorprehistoricdiscovery

A5,000-year-oldchalksculpturefound

next to the graveof threechildrenhas

beenhailedby the BritishMuseumas

“the mostimportantpieceof prehistoric

art” uncoveredin Britainin acentury.

The “BurtonAgnesdrum”was

unearthednear the Yorkshirevillageof

that namein 2015,duringaroutine

excavationon the site of anew biogas

plant,says DanielCassadyin The Art

Newspaper.Its existencehas only just

beenwidelyrevealed.Thoughtto be a

sculptureof adrum, it featureselaborate

motifsin astyle whichflourishedin

Britainand Irelandat the time

Stonehengewas built;the buriedchildrenhavebeencarbon-

datedto 3005-2890BC. The workis similarto threeotherchalk

drumsin the BritishMuseum’scollection,knownas the

Folktondrums,whichwerefoundin achild’sgravein North

Yorkshirein 1889.Theyare thoughtto havebeentalismans

designedto protectthe deceasedchildren.All four drumswill

go on displaytogetherin the BritishMuseum,as part of

TheworldofStonehengeexhibition,

whichopenedthis week.

Avant-gardevandalism

ARussian museumguardhas been

chargedwith vandalismafter drawing

eyes on the “facelessfigures”depictedin

an avant-gardeSoviet-erapainting,says

Sian Cain in The Guardian.Accordingto

the BorisYeltsinPresidentialCentrein

Yekaterinburg,a“bored”60-year-old

guardusedaballpoint pen to draweyes

on figurespaintedonto a1930s canvas

by the artistAnnaLeporskaya,valuedat

around£750,000.Fortunately,

the damageto the painting

was not irreparable:the guard,acontractorfor a

privatesecuritycompany,reportedlydid not press

the pen hard enoughto disturbthe paint.The

unnamedculprithas sincebeendismissed.“His

motivesare still unknown,”said curatorAnna

Reshetkina.“But the administrationbelievesit

was somekind of lapsein sanity.”

The BurtonAgnesDrum:atalisman?

Untitled(2002):“oftensurprisingand sometimesfrightening”