Louise Bourgeois
I have been to hell and back. And let me tell you, it was wonderful.
25 September 2024—19 January 2025
Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
This exhibition, Bourgeois’s first in Japan in 27 years and her largest solo exhibition in the country to date, will showcase approximately 100 works across three chapters that offer a comprehensive overview of her practice. Bourgeois continued to create artworks until her death at the age of 98, and during her final years produced many works that might be considered some of the most iconic of her career. About half of the works in this exhibition, such as her fabric works, were created after 1998, and will be on view for the first time in Japan.
The subtitle of the exhibition, I have been to hell and back. And let me tell you, it was wonderful. is taken from a late fabric work in which Bourgeois embroidered these words on a handkerchief. It alludes to the fluctuations and ambivalent character of her emotions, as well as hinting at her black sense of humour. Bourgeois saw herself as a survivor. Her body of work expresses her strong will to live and promises ways of overcoming the sometimes “hellish” suffering of mankind, which is all too often exacerbated by war, natural disaster, and disease.
This travelling exhibition will take place at Fubon Art Museum, Taiwan, in the spring of 2025.