Louise Bourgeois Quotes

Quotes about:

• Art is restoration: the idea is to repair the damages that are inflicted in life, to make something that is fragmented - which is what fear and anxiety do to a person - into something whole.

  Louise Bourgeois

  Art, Ideas, Anxiety

  184 Copy quote

• Tell your own story, and you will be interesting.

  Louise Bourgeois

  Interesting, Stories

  137 Copy quote

• Art is a way of recognizing oneself.

  Louise Bourgeois

  Art, Way, Recognizing

  Louise Bourgeois, Donald Burton Kuspit (1988). “Bourgeois”, Vintage

  61 Copy quote

• In my sculpture, it's not an image I am seeking, it's not an idea. My goal is to re-live a past emotion. My art is an exorcism, and beauty is something I never talk about.

  Louise Bourgeois

  Art, Past, Ideas

  Louise Bourgeois (1998). “Destruction of the Father, Reconstruction of the Father: Writings and Interviews, 1923-1997”

  124 Copy quote

• A work of art does not need an explanation. The work has to speak for itself. The work may be subject to many interpretations, but only one was in the mind of the artist. Some artists say to make the work readable for the public is an artist’s responsibility, but I don’t agree with that. The only responsibility to be absolutely truthful to the self. My work disturbs people and nobody wants to be disturbed They are not fully aware of the effect my work has on them, but they know it is disturbing.

  Louise Bourgeois

  Art, Responsibility, Self

  131 Copy quote

• I am not what I am, I am what I do with my hands.

  Louise Bourgeois

  Hands, Bourgeois

  108 Copy quote

• I am a searcher...
  I always was... and I still am...
  searching for the missing piece.

  Louise Bourgeois

  Missing, Pieces, Searchers

  86 Copy quote

• One must accept the fact that others don’t see what you do.

  Louise Bourgeois

  Facts, Accepting

  136 Copy quote

• I have been to hell and back, and let me tell you, it was wonderful.

  Louise Bourgeois

  Hell And Back, Wonderful, Let Me

  111 Copy quote

• Art is a guarantee of sanity. That is the most important thing I have
  said.

  Louise Bourgeois

  Art, Important, Guarantees

  99 Copy quote

• The Spider is an ode to my mother. She was my best friend. Like a spider, my mother was a weaver. . . Like spiders, my mother was very clever. Spiders are friendly presences that eat mosquitoes. We know that mosquitoes spread diseases and are therefore unwanted. So, spiders are helpful and protective, just like my mother.

  Louise Bourgeois

  Mother, Clever, Friendly

  "Giant spider takes up residence at Tate", www.theguardian.com. October 3, 2007.

  159 Copy quote

• When I was growing up, all the women in my house were using needles. I've always had a fascination with the needle, the magic power of the needle. The needle is used to repair damage. It's a claim to forgiveness. It is never aggressive, it's not a pin.

  Louise Bourgeois

  Growing Up, House, Magic

  Josef Helfenstein, Bice Curiger, Jacqueline Burckhardt, Louise Bourgeois, Robert Gober (1991). “Parkett”

  123 Copy quote

• A work of art doesn't have to be explained. If you do not have any feeling about this, I cannot explain it to you. If this doesn't touch you, I have failed.

  Louise Bourgeois

  Art, Feelings, Works Of Art

  125 Copy quote

• I came from a family of repairers. The spider is a repairer. If you bash into the web of a spider, she doesn't get mad. She weaves and repairs it.

  Louise Bourgeois

  Mad, Spiders, Bash

  "Louise Bourgeois: a web of emotions" by Adrian Searle, www.theguardian.com. June 1, 2010.

  100 Copy quote

• An artist can show things that other people are terrified of expressing.

  Louise Bourgeois

  Art, Memorable, Acceptance

  94 Copy quote

• The subject of pain is the business I am in - to give meaning and shape to frustration and suffering. The existence of pain cannot be denied. I propose no remedies or excuses.

  Louise Bourgeois

  Pain, Frustration, Giving

  Jerry Gorovoy, Louise Bourgeois, Pandora Tabatabai Asbaghi, Paulo Herkenhoff, Fondazione Prada (Milan, Italy) (1997). “Louise Bourgeois: blue days and pink days”

  69 Copy quote

• I always had the fear of being separated and abandoned. The sewing is my attempt to keep things together and make things whole.

  Louise Bourgeois

  Together, Abandoned, Whole

  Louise Bourgeois, Gerald Matt, Peter Weiermair (2005). “Louise Bourgeois: Aller-Retour : Zeichnungen und Skulpturen”, Verlag Fur Moderne Kunst

  22 Copy quote

• To be an artist, you need to exist in a world of silence.

  Louise Bourgeois

  Artist, Silence, Needs

  24 Copy quote

• Every day you have to abandon your past or accept it and then, if you cannot accept it, you become a sculptor.

  Louise Bourgeois

  Past, Sculpture, Accepting

  Louise Bourgeois, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (1999). “Louise Bourgeois: memoria y arquitectura : Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, 16 de noviembre de 1999-14 de febrero del 2000”, Actar-D

  68 Copy quote

• Horizontality is a desire to give up, to sleep. Verticality is an attempt to escape. Hanging and floating are states of ambivalence.

  Louise Bourgeois

  Giving Up, Sleep, Desire

  Louise Bourgeois, John Cheim (1988). “Louise Bourgeois: Drawings”

  76 Copy quote

• My art is a form of restoration in terms of my feelings to myself and to others.

  Louise Bourgeois

  Art, Feelings, Restoration

  "My art is a form of restoration". Interview with Rachel Cooke, www.theguardian.com. October 14, 2007.

  30 Copy quote

• The feminists took me as a role model, as a mother. It bothers me. I am not interested in being a mother. I am still a girl trying to understand myself.

  Louise Bourgeois

  Girl, Mother, Role Models

  "Louise Bourgeois: a web of emotions" by Adrian Searle, www.theguardian.com. June 1, 2010.

  84 Copy quote

• Clothing is . . . an exercise in memory. It makes me explore the past: how did I feel when I wore that. They are like signposts in the search for the past.

  Louise Bourgeois

  Art, Memories, Exercise

  Jerry Gorovoy, Louise Bourgeois, Pandora Tabatabai Asbaghi, Paulo Herkenhoff, Fondazione Prada (Milan, Italy) (1997). “Louise Bourgeois: blue days and pink days”

  24 Copy quote

• I have kept a diary as long as I can remember, and drawings are really another kind of diary.

  Louise Bourgeois

  Drawing, Long, Diaries

  "Artist Louise Bourgeois reveals her thoughts on drawing". The Guardian interview, www.theguardian.com. September 18, 2009.

  29 Copy quote

• For me, sculpture is the body. My body is my sculpture.

  Louise Bourgeois

  Sculpture, Body

  Jerry Gorovoy, Louise Bourgeois, Pandora Tabatabai Asbaghi, Paulo Herkenhoff, Fondazione Prada (Milan, Italy) (1997). “Louise Bourgeois: blue days and pink days”

  10 Copy quote

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