Barbara Krakow Gallery

Louise Bourgeois

(American/French, 1911–2010)

Louise Bourgeois

Untitled (Circle Maze), 1996

Biography

Timeline

1911: Born in Paris, France
1921 - 1932: Academie Fenelon, France
1932 - 1935: Studied at the Sorbonne, Paris, France
1936 - 1937: Studied at the École du Louvre, Paris, France
Atelier Bissiere
1936 - 1938: Studied at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France
Pupil of Fernand Léger
Academie de la Grande Chaumiere
Emigrated to the USA, New York, NY
1939 - 1940: Vaclav Vytlacil
1977: Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts Degree from Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
1978: G.S.A. Commission, Manchester, NH
1981: Elected Fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Boston, MA, USA
Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts Degree, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, USA
1983: Elected Member of American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York, NY, USA
Named Officier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Paris, France
Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts Degree, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA, USA
1984: President’s Fellows Award, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA
Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts Degree, Maryland Institute, College of Art, Baltimore, MD, USA
President’s Fellows Award, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI, USA
1985: Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME
1987: Gold Medal of Honor for Excellence in Art, National Arts Club, New York, NY, USA
Named Fellow for Life at Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA
Honorary Doctorate, The New School, New York, USA
1990: The Sculpture Center Award for Distinction in Sculpture 1990, The Sculpture Center, New York, USA
Lifetime Achievement Award, International Sculpture Center, Washington D.C. (first recipient)
1991: Awarded the Grand Prix National de Sculpture, French Ministry of Culture, Paris, France
1993: Mayor’s Awards for Art & Culture, New York, NY
Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts (DFA) by Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York, USA
Maison Francaise, New York University, USA
1995: The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo and The Hakone Open-Air Museum, Kanagawa-ken, Japan
Biennial Award and Purchase prize for ARCH OF HYSTERIA
Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts, Art Institute of Chicago, IL, USA
1997: National Medal of Arts presented by President Clinton at the White House, Washington D.C.
1998: Academician of the National Academy, New York, NY
Awarded the Golden Lion, for a living master of contemporary art,Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
1999: Praemium Imperiale Award in the sculpture category from the Japan
2000: Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts, The Art Institute of Boston, USA
Honorary Member, Akademie Der Bildenden Kunste Wien, Austria
2001: Honoree, ArtWalk, Coalition for the Homeless, New York, USA
2002 - 2003: Wolf Prize in the Arts (Painting and Sculpture), Wolf Foundation, Israel
Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL, USA
2005: Medal of Honor, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts, The Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, New York, USA
2006: National Organization For Women, “The 2006 Intrepid Award”, Washington D.C., USA
2007: The United Nations and Women Together, The "Woman Award" New York, USA
2008: French Legion of Honor medal presented by President Sarkozy to Louise
Aragon-Goya Award, Goya Foundation, Aragon Government, Zaragoza, Spain
2009: Inducted into National Women’s Hall of Fame, Seneca Falls, New York, USA
2010: Died in New York, NY, USA

Exhibitions

2013: Rare and Important works from a Private Collection, Galerie Karsten Greve Paris, France (solo)
: Les Papesses, Palais des Papes, Avignon, France
2011 - 2012: Louise Bourgeois: À l’infini, Hommage zum 100. Geburtstag, Foundation Beyeler / Beyeler Museum AG, Riehen, Switzerland
2011: Louise Bourgeois: The Return of the Repressed, Fundación Proa, Buenos Aires, Argentina, The Instituto Tomie Ohtake, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Museu do Arte Moderno, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
THE DAMNED, THE POSSESSED AND THE BELOVED, installation piece, unveiled on June 23rd, 2011 in Vardo, Norway
2010 - 2011: Louise Bourgeois: Eugénie Grandet, Maison de Balzac, Paris, France
2010: Otto Zitko & Louise Bourgeois Me, Myself and I Arnolfini, Bristol, UK
Hans Bellmer – Louise Bourgeois: Double Sexus, Sammlung Scharf-Gerstenberg, Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag, Netherlands
2009: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC (solo)
Louise Bourgeois. A Stretch of Time, Galerie Karsten Greve Köln, Cologne, Germany (solo)
2008 - 2009: Louise Bourgeois, Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples, Italy (solo)
2008: Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (solo)
Nature Study, Inverleith House, Royal Botanical Gardens, Edinburgh, Scotland
Louise Bourgeois: La Rivière Gentille, Galerie Hauser & Wirth, Zurich, Switzerland
Louise Bourgeois: Echo, Cheim & Read, New York, NY, USA
2007 - 2008: Bourgeois in Boston, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA (solo)
Seduced: Art and Sex from Antiquity to Now, Barbican Centre, London, UK
Louise Bourgeois: Retrospective, Tate Modern, London, UK; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C. (solo)
Louise Bourgeois: New Work, Hauser & Wirth Colnaghi, London, UK
Louise Bourgeois: Recent Prints, Marlborough Graphics, London, UK
Louise Bourgeois: Crouching Spider", installed on Pier 14 at Embarcadero & Mission Street San Francisco Arts Commission, San Francisco, CA, USA
2007: Pure, Sean Kelly, New York, NY
Louise Bourgeois, Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, NY (solo)
Louise Bourgeois: Abstraction, Kukje Gallery, Seoul, Korea (solo)
Xavier Hufkens Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
After the Revolution: Woman Who Transformed Contemporary Art, Dorsky Gallery, Long Island City, NY
Louise Bourgeois, Fernando Sánchez Castillo, Jan Svenungsson, The WANAS Foundation, Knislinge, Sweden
52nd International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
All the More Real, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY
2006: Louise Bourgeois: La Famille, Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany (solo)
Louise Bourgeois: Femme, Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD
Louise Bourgeois: Early Drawings, Peter Blum, New York, NY
Louise Bourgeois: Selected Prints on Fabric, Butler Gallery, The Castle, Kilkenny, Ireland
Louise Bourgeois: The Woven Child, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA
2005 - 2006: Louise Bourgeois: Back and Forth, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria
2005: Sublimation, Hauser & Wirth London, London, UK (solo)
Stitches in Time, Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, FL (solo)
Wifredo Lam Centre, Havana, Cuba (solo)
51st International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
Permanent Instability, Istanbul Modern, Istanbul, Turkey
2004: La Femme: Métamorphose de la modernité, Fundació Joan Miro, Barcelona, Spain
Disparities and Deformations, Site Santa Fe's 5th International Biennal, Santa Fe, NM
Louise Bourgeois, Daros Collection, Zurich, Switzerland (solo)
Louise Bourgeois, Akira Ikeda Gallery Muranchi, Yokosuka, Japan
Drawings by Louise Bourgeois, St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO
Louise Bourgeois: The Reticent Child, Cheim & Read, New York, NY
Louise Bourgeois: Prints, Galerie Karsten Greve, Paris, France
2003 - 2004: A View From the Outside, Louise Bourgeois: The Reticent Child, Sigmund Freud Museum, Vienna, Austria
Louise Bourgeois, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
2003: Louise Bourgeois, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, cur. Julie Sylvester Cabot, Humlebaek, DK (solo)
Louise Bourgeois. Installation at Inauguration of Dia: Beacon, Dia Center for the Arts, New York, NY (solo)
Louise Bourgeois. The Insomnia Drawings, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (solo)
2002 - 2003: Louise Bourgeois: Le Jour La Nuit Le Jour, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
Louise Bourgeois: Recent Sculptures and Drawings, Beaumontpublic, Luxembourg
2002: Documenta XI, Kassel, Germany
The House of Fiction, Sammlung Hauser & Wirth, St. Gallen, Switzerland
Surrealism. Desire Unbound, Tate Modern, London; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Louise Bourgeois. Works in Marble, Galerie Hauser & Wirth, Zurich, Switzerland (solo)
Louise Bourgeois. Le Jour La Nuit Le Jour, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (solo)
: Louise Bourgeois at the Hermitage, The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia; Helsinki City Art Museum, Finland; Kulturhuset, Stockholm; Museet for Samtidskunst, Oslo, Norway
2001 - 2002: Louise Bourgeois: New Work, Cheim & Read, New York, NY
2001: Louise Bourgeois: The Insomnia Drawings, Tate Modern, London
: Spiders, Rockefeller Center, organized in association with the Public Art Fund, New York, NY
: Louise Bourgeois, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain (solo)
Vital Forms: American Art and Design in the Atomic Age 1940-1960, Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, NY
Rodin to Baselitz. The Torso in Modern Sculpture, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
2000: Louise Bourgeois. Neue Arbeiten/Recent Works, Galerie Hauer & Wirth, Zurich, Switzerland (solo)
Louise Bourgeois: Inaugural Installation of the Tate Modern Art at Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, London, England
Louise Bourgeois: The Space of Memory, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Kyungki-do, Korea
The Welcoming Hands by Louise Bourgeois, Installation, Jardin des Tuileries, Paris, France
1999 - 2000: Louise Bourgeois: Architecture and Memory, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte - Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain
1999: Louise Bourgeois. Memoria y arquitectura, Museo Nacional, Centro de Arte Reina Sofìa, Madrid, Spain (solo)
Louise Bourgeois, Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany (solo)
The American Century. Art & Culture. 1950-2000, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Hirshhorn Museum/Sculpture Garden, ‘Regarding Beauty. A View of the Late 20th Century‘, Washington DC
Looking for a Place, SITE, Santa Fe, NM
: Sacred and Fatal: The Art of Louise Bourgeois, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh
: Topiary, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
1998: Louise Bourgeois. Recent Work, Serpentine Gallery, London, UK (solo)
Past Tense. Louise Bourgeois, The Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada (solo)
Louise Bourgeois: Topiary, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (solo)
Mirror Images. Women, Surrealism and Self-Representation, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
: Louise Bourgeois, Musee d’Art Contemporain, Bordeaux, France, Foundation Belem, Lisbon, Portugal, Kunsthalle Malmo, Malmo, Sweden, Serpentine Gallery, London
1997 - 1998: Louise Bourgeois, Yokohama Museum, Tokyo
Louise Bourgeois, The Arts Club of Chicago, IL
1996: Louise Bourgeois. Der Ort des Gedächtnisses Skulpturen, Environments und Zeichnungen. 1946-1995, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany (solo)
Red Room, Galerie Hauser & Wirth, Zurich, Switzerland (solo)
1995: Drawings Retrospective, Musée National d'art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, Helsinki City Art Museum, Finland
: Drawings Retrospective, Musée National d'art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France. Travelled to Helsinki City Art Museum, Finland
: Louise Bourgeois. Sculptures, environnements, dessins. 1938-1995, Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France (solo)
1994 - 1995: Print Retrospective, Museum of Modern Art, New York, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, Musée du Dessin et de l'Estampe Originale, Gravelines, France, The Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, England, Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht
1993 - 1996: American Pavilion, Venice Biennale, Italy, expanded exhibition The Locus of Memory travelled to The Brooklyn Museum, New York, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague, Czech Republic, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Musée d'Art Contemporain de Montréal
: American Pavilion, Venice Biennale, Italy, An expanded exhibition "The Locus of Memory", travelled to The Brooklyn Museum, New York; The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague, Czech Republic; Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; Deichtorhallen, Hamburg; Musée d'Art Contemporain de Montréal
1989 - 1991: Louise Bourgeois: A Retrospective Exhibition, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, West Germany, Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, West Germany, Musée d'art Contemporain, Lyon; Fondacion Tapies, Barcelona, Spain, Kunstmuseum, Berne, Kröller-Muller-Museum, Otterlo, The Netherlands
1987 - 1989: Louise Bourgeois, The Taft Museum, Cincinnati, OH, The Art Museum at Florida International, Laguna Gloria Art Museum, Austin, TX, Gallery of Art, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY
1982 - 1983: Louise Bourgeois: Retrospective, Museum of Modern Art, New York, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL, Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH

Public Collections

: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX
Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
The National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY
Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington D.C
Tate Gallery, London, UK
Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, NY