The Chilling Polarities of Louise Bourgeois

“It is not an image I am seeking. It’s not an idea. It is an emotion you want to recreate, an emotion of wanting, of giving and of destroying” - Louise Bourgeois

What is the essential link between mother and child, between self and other, between independence and interdependence, between copulation and creation, between the literal and the figurative? These are just some of the questions posed in the inaugural show of French-American artist Louise Bourgeois's work in Israel, at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. The exhibition “Twosome”, jointly curated by Jerry Gorovoy and Suzanne Landau, emphasizes the duality in Louise Bourgeois's work. Bourgeois struggled with bouts of depression throughout her life which is reflected in the pieces selected for the show. The exhibition contains themes of displacement, abandonment, and anxiety, sentiments that permeated her powerful, and at times, chilling oeuvre.  

Twosome, which features over 50 works, presents a highly personal connection between the artist and her work. The art of Bourgeois is autobiographical and cannot be separated from her lived experiences. She, herself, said “my sculpture is my body”. Louise Bourgeois's somatic fascination is a strong motif throughout the exhibition. The human body, and primarily the female form, is used as a catalyst with which to explore motherhood, abandonment, love, and fear.      

Louise Bourgeois with a fabric sculpture in progress in 2009.
Photo: © Alex Van Gelder / Art: © The Easton Foundation

Louise Bourgeois’s had an acute awareness of the relationship between the self and others. In her consideration of relationships the artist created dialogues between contradictory concepts, such as; the conscious and unconscious, mother and child, male and female. Filial relationships are considered in both small and large scale works. Intimate pieces such as Umbilical Cord (2003) and The Birth (2007) portray the intense vulnerability Bourgeois experienced throughout her life.  A display of 17 of these smaller works, in a variety of mediums, is expertly juxtaposed with a series of installations meant to serve as confessionals.  

The exhibition's namesake piece, Twosome (1991) is a unique work for Louise Bourgeois because of its scale and industrial aesthetic. Despite its hulking presence, Twosome maintains the alluring intimacy of her smaller works. This sculptural installation is a powerful culmination of Louise Bourgeois's exploration of the complex relationship between mother and child. While the work is up for interpretation it is near impossible not to feel a maternal bond existing between the the two tanks as one perpetually moves in and out of the other, with a metal chain serving as an umbilical cord to connect them and a red light pulsing from within the steel sculpture, giving it a sense of life.    

Louise Bourgeois
SPIDER COUPLE, 2003
Steel
228.6 x 360.7 x 365.8 cm.
Private Collection
Photo: Christopher Burke, (c) The Easton Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, NY

While Twosome is predominantly concerned with Louise Bourgeois's relationship with her parents (Spider Couple, 2003) and then her own children, it does not neglect her reflections on romantic relationships. There is a morbid romanticism to her work that is best embodied by Couples (2003). This large sculpture fabricated in cast aluminum is perilously suspended from the gallery’s ceiling by a single string, leaving the warped lovers in a tragic free fall. The shiny exterior of Couple belies its darker purpose as a cathartic exploration of the artist’s lifelong fear of abandonment.     

Louise Bourgeois
THE COUPLE, 2003
Aluminum, hanging piece
365.1 x 200 x 109.9 cm.
Collection The Easton Foundation
Photo: Christopher Burke, (c) The Easton Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, NY

The figurative language used by Louise Bourgeois explores the darker side of human existence through psychoanalysis, metaphor, confession, and more. An overarching theme of duality defines this psychologically charged exhibition which will challenge viewers perception of relationships, while using polarities, to remind them that even from despair can come great beauty. The strongest element of this exhibition lies within its perceptive curatorial team and specifically, Jerry Gorovoy, who worked as an assistant to Bourgeois from the 1980s until her death in 2010. Gorovoy has conceded that working with Bourgeois could be pathological; nevertheless he remains adamant about her prowess and dexterity both as an artist and human being. 
  
Twosome is open at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art from September 7, 2017 to January 8, 2018, while a complimentary exhibition of Louise Bourgeois prints Pink Days / Blue Days is on view at Gordon Gallery from through October 28, 2017.  We highly recommend checking out both shows during this exciting moment in the Tel Aviv art scene. 

Louise Bourgeois in her home studio in 1974.
Photo: Mark Setteducati, © The Easton Foundation

Header Image: 
Louise Bourgeois
TWOSOME, 1991
Steel, paint and electric light
190.5 x 193 x 1244.6 cm.
Collection The Easton Foundation
Photo: Peter Bellamy, © The Easton Foundation/ Licensed by VAGA, NY

Barcelona Art Guide - September

I. 
Exhibition title: "Bei mir geht es in den Keller hoch”
Artist: David Ostrowsky
Venue: Blueproject Foundation, Sala project, Barcelona
Dates: Until October 1st

The Blueproject Foundation presents “Bei mir geht es in den Keller hoch”, the first personal exhibition of the artist David Ostrowski in Spain that can be seen in the Sala Project until October 1st, 2017. The exhibition allows the visitors to discover the pictorial work of the artist, presenting a selection of paintings, as well as a large installation that will occupy the center of the Sala Project. 

II.
Exhibition title: Every blind wondering ends in a circle
Artist: José Dávila
Venue: Blueproject Foundation,  Il Solotto, Barcelona
Dates: Until September 29

The exhibition, which can be seen in Il Salotto until October 29th, 2017, presents four sculptures from the series Joint Effort, a group of works in which the artist reflects on the attraction and tension between the materials, emphasizing, in this case, the relationship of transparency and opacity between them. 

III.
Exhibition title: Andy Warhol, mechanical art
Artist: Andy Warhol
venue: Caixa forum, Barcelona
Dates: 14 September to 31 December 

The show underscores the way in which Andy Warhol (Pittsburgh, 1928 – New York, 1987) captures the commodity cult of nineteenth-century industrial inventions. Always attentive to the technical and industrial advance, Warhol used all kinds of techniques and machines, from the silkscreen to the video recorder, with productive patterns that he himself defined as “typical of an assembly line.” 

Zurich Art Guide - September

After a sleepy August with many of the galleries closed for a well-deserved summer break, there’s a sense of new beginnings as they re-open their doors with fresh presentations.  
 

I. 
Exhibition title: No title
Artist: Shirana Shahbazi
Galerie: Peter Kilchmann
Dates: 2 September – 21 October 2017

As a huge fan of Zürich based Iranian artist Shirana Shahbazi (b.1974, Tehran), I’ve been awaiting this exhibition with anticipation. It’s the artist’s first at Galerie Peter Kilchmann, though she has exhibited in galleries and museums far and wide. Shahbazi has transformed the gallery space through her own individually mixed colour blocks painted on the walls; her vibrant photographic works are decisively positioned to contrast with these hues. The artworks’ frames are made out of reflective silver, which pick up the colours on opposing walls. Viewing the artworks from different angles cause these reflections and colours to shift and move. It’s a show that has an immense impact from the word go! 

Alternating between abstraction and representation, Shahbazi’s brilliantly coloured, glossy photographs are made in the crisp style of commercial photography, but using analogue processes. To make her abstract compositions, she photographs objects, printed patterned papers and for the first time in this new body of work, mirrors. The effects are strange and disorientating, but if you study the images hard enough, there’s always a clue where the mirror begins or ends. Shahbazi enjoys these illusions, playing with what is real and not real – even the most abstract of her works are derived from tangible objects. 

The exhibition also features lithographs, originating from photographs of everyday life, from her travels in Tehran and elsewhere. Some appear more like collages, combining fragments of her abstract motifs with figurative elements. This is a new departure for the artist – merging her abstractions with figurative images, bringing the studio and outside world together. I love how the lithographs are interspersed with her glossy photographs, their tones are more muted and their surface matt, bringing yet another juxtaposition. 

Walking through this diverse exhibition, I realized Shahbazi’s work is about an overall experience. I felt she wanted me to stay with the images and lose myself in the colours and forms, and delight in the mystery and wonderment. 

Shirana Shahbazi, Raum-Gelb-01, 2017
Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich
 

II. 
Exhibition title: Cosmopolitan
Artist: René Burri
Galerie: Bildhalle
Dates: 24 August – 21 October 2017

Entering this exhibition was extremely moving. It’s the first solo show since the great Swiss Magnum photographer passed away in 2014 and immediately his memory, charisma and joie de vivre came flooding back. 

The exhibition has been beautifully curated in the Bildhalle space, with careful groupings, and much of his archive on display. Icons such as his infamous ‘“Che”, Ernesto Guevara, Havana’ (1963) and ‘Four Men on a Rooftop, Sao Paulo’ (1960) are shown alongside less well-known images. 

Burri’s archive provides an extraordinary visual record of the latter half of the 20th century. You can’t help but wonder when taking in image after image – in Spain, Italy, France, Egypt, Vietnam, Brazil, China, Japan - how one person could witness so much. From his first photograph of Winston Churchill, taken when only 13 years old, he went on to capture many prominent figures including Che Guevara, Le Corbusier, Mao, Picasso, Giacometti, and the list goes on. There were conflicts too, from the 19567 Suez Canal crisis through the wars in Korea, Cyprus and Vietnam. 

It was Burri’s charisma, along with his curiosity and perseverance that allowed him such access. I love one story he told of how he came to photograph Picasso. After seeing “Guernica” in 1953, he vowed he would meet the artist. He tried waiting outside Picasso’s studio but had no luck. In 1957, he heard he was in Nîmes to watch a bullfight. At Picasso’s hotel, a porter mistook Burri for a member of the artist’s entourage and he managed to slip into his room to find him with a large group of friends enjoying a rowdy meal. Picasso let him stay and take photographs, resulting in an incredible series of intimate portraits of the artist enjoying the party with no hint of anyone having disrupted things. Burri always managed to get very close!

René Burri, Bilbao, Spain, 1957
©René Burri/Magnum Photos
 

III. 
Exhibition title:  Whispering Widows
Artist: Clare Goodwin
Galerie: Lullin + Ferrari
Dates: 26 August – 7 October 2017

Clare Goodwin (b. 1973, Birmingham, UK) presents both small and large-scale paintings, collages and sculptures. The pristine white gallery space, punctuated by mainly pastel-coloured abstractions, offers a sense of ease and calm, a coolness from the summer heat. The gallery floor was painted white and the front windows covered with a rose veneer, creating a cocoon effect so we experience all the works as a whole. Encouraged by the exhibition title “Whispering Widows”, I could almost imagine these paintings and biomorphic sculptures speaking to each other in hushed tones. 

Goodwin loves to collect objects, usually discarded things, which she keeps in her studio as the source material for her paintings. For example, unwanted scarves, ties and old knick-knacks, often from the 1970s, the decade she grew up in. Brimming with traces of the past, they trigger her memories and inspire new, invented stories. She is keen to show that abstract painting has the capacity to represent quite tangible aspects of reality, which is further emphasised by the titles, usually British old-fashioned names such as Carol + Harry (image below). Her cool abstractions suddenly take on more of a human quality. When observing this particular painting with its translucent, loose washes of ink overlaid with defined, opaque geometric forms, I started to wonder about individual narratives. I imagined this Carol + Harry, perhaps an elderly couple, their lives intertwined through years of living in close quarters with their many quirks and peccadilloes. 

Working in Zürich, where Constructivism and hard-edged Concrete Art prevail, Goodwin clearly has a stylistic affiliation with this heritage, but she consciously creates distance through the emotion, nostalgia and spontaneity that she brings to her work. As I reflected on these artworks, their warmth and humour, I felt quite glad of her predisposition for entertaining the non-rational!

Clare Goodwin, Whispering Widows (Carol + Harry), 2017
© Clare Goodwin, Courtesy of Gaerie Lullin + Ferrari
 

Header Image:
Installation view, Shirana Shahbazi, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zürich, Sept. 2 - Oct. 21, 2017
Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich

Join Diana Poole, Oh So Arty's local art guide in Zurich on her next group tour which will take place on Saturday September 16th, 3 - 6 pm, sign up here

Art & Leisure in Israel - The Elma Hotel

Summer in Israel is the perfect time for a short getaway. You know we’re fans of many arty cities but for our personal vacation we chose to stay in Israel (while continuing to carefully craft art tours around the world for our clients). Only an hour drive from Tel Aviv, we easily reached the Elma Hotel, located up North in the historical village of Zichron Yaakov, on the edge of Israel’s Mount Carmel Ridge. 

Elma - which is an acronym for Elstein Music and Art - was founded by philanthropist and art collector Lily Elstein at the end of 2014. She chose to locate Elma in what used to be the "Mivtachim Sanitarium", an award-winning architectural marvel designed in 1968 by Israeli architect Jacob Rechter, in a postwar brutalist style.

The hotel which was renovated by Jacob Rechter's son, Amnon Rechter, along with the architect Rani Ziss, is today an interdisciplinary venue and cultural center offering concerts, exhibition spaces, conference rooms, residency programs and more. But if you're just interesting in relaxing, the pool is beautiful too, with brutalist motifs all around!

As for the art, more than 500 pieces from Elstein's private collection are on display throughout the 95 hotel rooms, suites and in many of the hotel's public spaces. These include ambitious works by Sigalit Landau, like the unmissable sculpture "Thirst" made of marble where a nude couple is pushing a huge stone, located right in the middle of the lobby. As well as the iconic photographs from Landau's wedding dress project at the Dead Sea. 

We also enjoyed the temporary exhibition curated by Noemi Givon, of Tel Aviv's established Givon Art Gallery and Art Forum, which displayed the works of established and emerging Israeli painters throughout the hotel's corridors. We particularly loved Nurit David's pieces. 

Sigalit Landau

Sigalit Landau

Nurit David

In our lovely and spacious room, we were lucky to have a print by one of my favorite Israeli artists Nelly Agassi. The piece depicts what looks like a home or roof and a light bulb, with a pink and yellow background. It is delicate and strong like all of Agassi's works. This small gem combined with the magnificent view of Mount Carmel and the sea, made our stay unforgettable. 

The hotel offers a perfect combination of Art & Leisure, with a vintage 60s flare (see photo below!), breathtaking Israeli vistas of the mountains and the Mediterranean, fused with contemporary Israeli design and art. 

Book here: https://www.elma-hotel.com/accommodation

Art Galleries & actvities in the area:

Umm el-Fahem art Gallery

Ein Hod Village

Haifa graffiti tour with Alternative TLV

Courtesy of Architect Amnon Rechter

Images by Sarah Peguine

London Art Guide - September

I. 
Event: Don't Think Twice - Temporary Public Art at London Bridge Station
Artist: Jennifer Abessira  
Dates: 15 September - 26 November, 2017

Yes, art can come to you. Even when you quickly run to the train station with a coffee in hand. MTArt partnered with Network Rail and Team London Bridge in displaying 72 photographs of artist Jennifer Abessira outside of the London Bridge Station. Abessira specialises in using images which reflect cultures and communities and she assembles them to create a meaningful and colourful narrative.
 

II.
Event: Clinic 2
Artist: Jasmine Pradissitto
Dates: 20 September - 25 September, 2017

Lead by creative agency Vitamin London, this show will discuss the future of technology. The works of Jasmine Pradissitto are described as ‘holograms you can touch’, forms inspired by nature, the human condition and scientific breakthrough, are melted and reshaped from plastics into sculptures.

III. Turner Contemporary, Artist Rooms - Phyllida Barlow
Dates: Until 24 September, 2017

I am obsessed by the works of Phyllida Barlow - I LOVE the way she uses 'stuff' and makes it great, engaging and visually playful.