Louise Bourgeois has referred to her sculpture as her "psychoanalysis" and indeed her sculpture is based upon an autobiographical analysis of human psychology. She has continued to express the human subconscious and internalized experiences to create symbolic expressions of desire, pleasure, love, hate and isolation. The analysis into the experiences from her past has found shapes in images of the erotic and grotesque images of the body. From anger and frustration towards men and gender issues that were central to her earlier work, and the large dramatic bronze spider sculptures from the mid-nineties, the artist has recently turned towards working with stitching and mending pieces of fabric to create sculptural form. The change of material and technique signifies an important transition. According to the artist, sewing is an act of mending and healing and her figures crafted out of pieces of fabric are thus symbolic of reconciliation, unification and healing. Unlike the cold and hard bronze, the artist has opted for soft and warm materials and each figure is made by the artist's caressing hand moving across the figures with needle and thread. These sculptures show human relationships and the human psyche in ever more powerfully moving and delicate configurations.
Aseries of vertical pillar-like sculptures are also on view. These pillars are constructed out of a number of fabric units of different colors and shapes that are stacked one on top of another. These stacked pillars date back to the 1950s when the artist produced a series of wooden totem pole-like sculptures with wooden pieces strung into a metal pole. Based on repetition and a simple ordering sequence, these sculptures embody a delightful playfulness and pure abstract form rarely found in Bourgeois' work.
One of the most influential sculptors in the world, ninety-one year old Louise Bourgeois continues to produce important works and exhibit worldwide. Born in Paris in 1911, she permanently moved to the United States in 1938 and in 1982 was the first woman artist to have a retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Since the 1980s, Bourgeois has been honored by retrospective exhibitions in the most prestigious museums in Europe, the United States, Mexico and Japan, and in 1999 was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale. Honored by the academia and recipient of the Praemium Imperiale Award from the Japan Art Association, the Grand Prix from the French Ministry of Culture among others, Louise Bourgeois is definitely one of the living legends in the art world and demonstrates an ongoing passion for new sculptural forms of human experience.