Dan's Papers - August 1, 2008 - Art Commentary by Marion Wolberg Weiss

While a new sculpture by Louise Bourgeois graces the LongHouse Reserve's lawn, as noted in a previous "Art Commentary," both a recent documentary and the current exhibit at the Guggenheim Museum are also celebrating this outstanding artist.

The film, Louise Bourgeois: The Spider, The Mistress and The Tangerine, is by North Fork resident and art critic Amei Wallach. Along with co-director Marion Cajori, Wallach has created a moving and informative portrait that brings the artist and her work alive. This, of course, is no mean task, considering that the documentary has been in production since the 1990s.

Even so, we experience the immediacy of the moment, even if such a moment recalls Bourgeois' early childhood, traveling with her mother from camp to camp to visit her father during World War I. We feel her pain as an adult when her father lives openly with his mistress in the family home. We remember the objects that played a salient part in Bourgeoise's life: the stitched clothing that the seamstress made; the spiral forms resulting from wringing out the laundry.

If ever art imitated life, this is it. Or as she herself puts it, " My work is a self portrait." Yet Bourgeois does not wallow in self pity, remaining stoic throughout the extensive interviews, almost breaking into tears on only one occasion. Her wisdom remains intact as well when she reminds the viewer that it's obvious men are dependent on women and that what we need and what we get is different.

Without seeing the film first, a lot of Bourgeois' work at the Guggenheim would not make sense. For example, the relatively small spider that greets visitors recalls her mother: strong, dependent, resolute. (Yours truly was fortunate to see a huge Bourgeois spider at London's Tate Modern several years ago.) Bourgeois's twisting abstract forms hanging from the Museum's ceiling are other arresting reminders of objects from her early life. Or perhaps they represent a metaphor for her own contorted experiences.

A particularly extraordinary series is the installations, replicas of various rooms in her family home; some of these are also in the film and make more sense when we see them directly. There are other outstanding sculptures which are not featured in the documentary, including pieces like "One and Others," reminscent of Brancusi's work. The most striking work, however, are surreal sculptures (Bourgeois claimed she didn't like Surrealism) showing a woman inclosed in a house, her legs and/or other body parts protruding from the structure. If we apply what we learned from the film, we can assume the woman is her mother, entrapped in her domestic tribulations.

The work of Louise Bourgeois will be on view at the Guggenheim Museum until September 28.