ART-REVIEW:Louise Bourgeois-Editions

Left: Louise Bourgeois, Les Fleurs, 2009, Serigraphy on paper reworked with gouache, Ed. XI / L (each copy is unique because reworked), 27.9 x 21.6 cm, Galerie Karsten Greve Archive. Right: Louise Bourgeois, Topiary (The Art of Improving Nature), 1998, 9 Parts / Part 9/9, Dry point and aquatint on vellum paper Magnani Incisioni , Ed. 4/28 (Edition: 28 plus 12 A.P., 3 P.P., 1 H.C., 1 B.A.T.), 98.5 x 70.5 cm, Portfolio with 9 compositions: all with engraving and dry point, 5 with aquatint, 3 with additions, Publisher: Julie Sylvester-Cabot, Whitney Museum of American Art Editions-New York Printer: Harlan & Weaver-New York Cat. No. 444-452 Collections: MoMA-New York, Whitney Museum of American Art-New York and Tate Modern, London, Galerie Karsten Greve Archive
Left: Louise Bourgeois, Les Fleurs, 2009, Serigraphy on paper reworked with gouache, Ed. XI / L (each copy is unique because reworked), 27.9 x 21.6 cm, Galerie Karsten Greve Archive. Right: Louise Bourgeois, Topiary (The Art of Improving Nature), 1998, 9 Parts / Part 9/9, Dry point and aquatint on vellum paper Magnani Incisioni , Ed. 4/28 (Edition: 28 plus 12 A.P., 3 P.P., 1 H.C., 1 B.A.T.), 98.5 x 70.5 cm, Portfolio with 9 compositions: all with engraving and dry point, 5 with aquatint, 3 with additions, Publisher: Julie Sylvester-Cabot, Whitney Museum of American Art Editions-New York Printer: Harlan & Weaver-New York Cat. No. 444-452 Collections: MoMA-New York, Whitney Museum of American Art-New York and Tate Modern, London, Galerie Karsten Greve Archive

I started my footpath at the Galleries of Marais from Galerie Xippas, as always, by habit, but it was noon and was closed for lunch break. At first I was disappointed, but then I thought that advancing something better was waiting for me… till I turn lef to Rue Debelleyme, I passed Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac which was closed, setting up the exhibition by VALIE EXPORT, and went to Galerie Karsten Greve, where I was really surprised. Louise Bourgeois. I started looking at the editions, the drawings on paper, the very small quash and I was excited, because I realized once again that small scale artwork, in which usually we do not pay attention are the most essential. Perhaps because they are more sensitive, more fragile and more emotional,they reveal hidden  aspects of the artist’s soul or touch our own mental and emotional aspects that we are refusing to confess even to ourselves.

Eventually small-scale works are unmistakable (!!!)

No matter how many times the viewer is looking at the artworks of Louise Bourgeois is always surprised at how great and multifarious artist she is, but also how much her childhood and her experiences stigmatized her. In her own case, psychoanalysis was a means of survival, it did not change many things, I think, and this is shown in the way that she depicts her nightmares, obsessions, fears and phobias, it was an endless road, a the path to art, to the sublimation, but it was not the solution. Besides there are no solutions if we do not want to see them and the deadlocks are not solved if we do not want to deal with them. Her works on the walls of the Gallery, conflict in confrontation with each other, not conceptually, but emotionally through fluctuations. The exhibition is a retrospect in its size but for us it looks like a single artwork sliced into many pieces to fit perfectly in the space. No one can write a review but to submit his personal opinion, because in this exhibition, even though her “Editions”, Louise Bourgeois is reflected in her greatness.-Efi Michalarou