Louise Bourgeois Florence Art Exhibitions: Final Days

Cell XVIII (Portrait), by Louise Bourgeois at the Museo degli Innocenti. Photo: Christopher Burke, © The Easton Foundation/Licensed by S.I.A.E., Italy and VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY.

Until October 20: LOUISE BOURGEOIS, Do Not Abandon Me at Museo Novecento and Cell XVIII (Portrait) at Museo degli Innocenti. Opening hours: Museo Novecento, 11 am – 7 pm, closed Thursday, Museo degli Innocenti, 10 am – 7 pm Monday to Friday, 11 am – 9 pm on weekends.

Museo degli Innocenti is the most appropriate location to host the exhibition Cell XVIII (Portrait), by French artist Louise Bourgeois. Throughout time this building, one of the first Renaissance architectures not just in Florence but the world, has been home to the orphanage, from which its name is inspired, a prison, a women’s shelter and an educational establishment. This posthumous exhibition curated by Philip Larratt-Smith, Arabella Natalini and Stefania Rispoli, explores the dynamics occurring in mother and child relationships. The artist herself draws inspiration from her own turbulent youth in a variety of mediums including gouaches, sculpture and photography.

Museo degli Innocenti is the most appropriate location to host the exhibition Cell XVIII (Portrait), by French artist Throughout time this building, one of the first Renaissance architectures not just in Florence but the world, has been home to the orphanage, from which its name is inspired, a prison, a women’s shelter and an educational establishment. This posthumous exhibition curated by Philip Larratt-Smith, Arabella Natalini and Stefania Rispoli, explores the dynamics occurring in mother and child relationships. The artist herself draws inspiration from her own turbulent youth in a variety of mediums including gouaches, sculpture and photography.

Cell XVIII (Portrait) examines the multitude of emotions and sensations that arise in moments of isolation and alienation, thus having this exhibition housed in a place simultaneously representative of abandonment, punishment and faith is most illuminating to Bourgeois’ artistic language. As the Cells represent different aspects to the condition of human suffering, the artist seeks to highlight the cyclical nature of pain and the blurring of the thresholds that stand between emotional and psychological, mental and intellectual anguish. Bourgeois also seeked to explore the idea of human nature that individuals either ‘attract or repulse’ each other, choosing whether to entangle or escape company.

This exploration of human relationships continues with a heavier focus on maternal relationships to kin and to oneself in the exhibition ‘’Do Not Abandon Me’’, taking place in the Museo Novecento. Curated by Philip Larratt-Smith and Sergio Risaliti, this show, as its title suggests, is inspired by Bourgeois’ lifelong fear of abandonment and the foundations for her life as defined by her relationship with her mother. The near 100 works included in the exhibition include red gouaches which serve a thematic purpose, underscoring the motif of the mother and child relationship, embracing with her wet-on-wet method, a lack of total control, both over life and the paintings in all their scarlett glory, referencing the liquidus nature of bodily fluids involved in the female life cycle and maternal duty; blood, amniotic fluid, milk.

The exhibition at Museo Novecento also features pieces on paper created in the 2000s and various sculptures in fabric, bronze, marble and other materials. Symbolic of Bourgeois’ art is the spider motif, which on this occasion, the iconic Spider Couple (2003), made in bronze, will be installed in the cloister of the museum’s courtyard. Museo Novecento will also be the first location to display Spider, a sculpture of bronze and an egg of marble, a piece which is perhaps best informed by the artist’s assertion that the image of the spider is associated with the figure of her mother and is the bearer of duality and conflicted meaning. It is both a creature of intelligence and protection for its young, but also of creation, being well-known for the production of silk from the spider’s body itself.

Museo Novecento will also welcome the installations Peaux de Lapins, Chiffons Ferrailles à Vendre (2006), inspired by the calls of those selling goods on the street. The piece, as the French name suggests, exhibits hanging skin-like objects, intending to evoke the image of the empty womb, and by extension the female body, in an unsettling manner. This work is inevitably inserted into the discussion concerning the valorisation, or lack thereof, of the female body, moreover the body of a mother, in line with the French feminist thought emerging from the country in recent decades.

The museum will also see the installation of Cross (2002) which is located amptly in the church of the Renaissance building, of course evoking thought on the treatment of women in religious sphere, as the location once forbade women to enter during the celebration of religious rights, evidenced by the iron grilles which separate the women’s gallery.

There are 16 digital prints on fabric, also entitled Do Not Abandon Me (2009-10) created in partnership with British artist Tracey Emin, on display, which indisputably encapsulates sexual and bodily themes in confrontation with those of fear and loss.

“Do Not Abandon Me” and “Cell XVIII (Portrait)” at Museo Novecento and Museo degli Innocenti not only showcase Louise Bourgeois’ exploration of human emotions and relationships but also provides a space of recollection and retrospection for the visitor to assess their own experiences. These locations, already rich with history, allow visitors to engage intimately with Bourgeois’ creations, providing a powerful, immersive journey through the themes of pain, abandonment, and the female experience. (Lucy Turner)