Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010)

Throughout her artistic career, Louis Bourgeois has intrinsically linked herself with her art, saying "for me, sculpture is the body. My body is my sculpture" (Louise Bourgeois, quoted in C. Meyer-Thoss, "Self-Expression is Scared and Fatal: Statements," Louise Bourgeois: Designing for Free Fall, Zurich, 1992, 195). In this way, Bourgeois' own identity in imbedded into her sculpture, and each new piece she creates acts as a vehicle to externalize something extremely personal. Bourgeois' Female Portrait represents a synthesis of her strong understanding and adaptation of European and American artistic tendencies, while stamping it with her indelible mark.
The elaborate manipulation of her material creates an intricate and intimate bronze cast, creating an appealing and thoughtful abstract rendering of the female figure. The autobiographical nature of much of her work leads one to view her pieces in terms of her personality and own life, and Female Portrait is no exception. This image of a woman as mother reveals the conflicting emotions about motherhood as the dominant female figure protects her young as represented by the entangled limbs of her beloved, which also could be interpreted as ties that bind her and render her captive. Just as with her larger body of work, this example is an exploration into the female body and self, and can be seen as a vital forerunner for women artists inquiring into similar themes throughout subsequent decades. Although Bourgeois' tendency was to work with traditional mediums, her artistic intent and wry sense of humor subtly touches on concepts of gender, and sexuality, often poking fun at the masculine gesture of the American Abstract Expressionists in its own, quietly subversive way. By pushing the boundaries of a what the expectations of female artists, Bourgeois broke through numerous barriers through which other female artists could follow.