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Louise BourgeoisUntitled (I Have Been to Hell and Back)1996-2007
1996-2007
$4,500
£3,368.01
€3,899.94
CA$6,254.27
A$7,044.42
CHF 3,648.05
MX$85,551.63
NOK 46,338.67
SEK 43,956.14
DKK 29,098.95
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About the Item
This intimate 12 x 12-inch square textile piece showcases Louise Bourgeois' deep engagement with memory, femininity, and the body. Meticulously hand-embroidered onto a salvaged vintage fabric—perhaps once a handkerchief or linen napkin—the piece weaves together symbolic imagery and text. A central motif, often a red or black abstracted form, may evoke a womb, a spider, or a fragmented female figure—recurring symbols in Bourgeois’ oeuvre.
Stitches range from delicate to aggressive, sometimes unraveling slightly, speaking to themes of trauma, repair, and psychological unraveling. The fabric itself bears signs of age—faint stains, faded floral patterns—echoing the passage of time and domestic history. Bourgeois often referred to fabric as “a second skin,” and in this work, embroidery becomes both wound and healing gesture.
The small scale invites close inspection, reinforcing the personal and confessional nature of the work. Like much of Bourgeois’ textile art, this piece is both tender and unsettling—an artifact of memory sewn into silence.
- Creator:Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010, American, French)
- Creation Year:1996-2007
- Dimensions:Height: 12 in (30.48 cm)Width: 10 in (25.4 cm)
- Medium:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU8516589182
Louise Bourgeois
Louise Joséphine Bourgeois was a French-American artist. Although she is best known for her large-scale sculpture and installation art, Bourgeois was also a prolific painter and printmaker. She explored a variety of themes throughout her long career, including domesticity and the family, sexuality and the body, as well as death and the unconscious. These themes connect to events from her childhood, which she considered to be a therapeutic process. Although Bourgeois exhibited with the Abstract Expressionists and her work has much in common with Surrealism and Feminist art, she was not formally affiliated with a particular artistic movement.
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