Louise Bourgeois Archive
The Louise Bourgeois Archive is comprised of more than a century’s worth of personal writings, letters, diaries, exhibition announcements, photographs, and audiovisual recordings. These materials offer a unique insight into Bourgeois’s artistic motivations, and provide extensive documentation of her experimentations with material and form, her relationship to her environment, and her interest in psychoanalysis and literature. Letters and documents regarding exhibitions, galleries, and the making and showing of artworks trace the trajectory of Bourgeois’s prolific career.
The Foundation holds four archival collections, the processing of which is current and ongoing. The Archive is available to scholars and researchers by appointment only, on a case-by-case basis. The physical materials in the Archive are the property of The Easton Foundation, and all content is subject to United States copyright laws.
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The artist's papers contain thousands of items created and collected by Louise Bourgeois and her studio, documenting her life and career. The collection is physically arranged by type (writings, letters, ephemera) and item-level catalog numbers; intellectual arrangement is being planned. Some materials remain in their original location in the artist's conserved home.
Materials include correspondence, diaries, writings and notes, ephemera and other printed material, and more. Subjects include Art exhibitions; Art, Modern; Art, Contemporary; Artists’ studios; Bourgeois, Louise, 1911-2010; Bourgeois family; Correspondence; Ephemera; France; Interviews; Printmaking; Psychoanalysis; Sculpture, and more.
Louise Bourgeois, diary entry, 2-3 August 1995 © The Easton Foundation/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
The Photograph Collection contains over 5,000 images in many forms, including prints, negatives, and slides created or collected by Louise Bourgeois, her family and friends, her studio, and professional photographers. The collection documents Bourgeois’s family, life, and artistic practice between circa 1857 and 2010 (bulk 1930’s–1990’s). Subjects include family photographs, photo albums, travel photos, documentation of artwork and exhibitions, scenes from the studio, property documentation, and more.
Louise Bourgeois with The Quartered One and other works in progress in her home studio, 1965, New York. Photo: Unknown, © The Easton Foundation/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
The Audiovisual Collection includes sound and moving image recordings created by Louise Bourgeois and her family, friends, and studio, as well as commercial projects, from between circa 1966 and 2010. Content includes audio diaries, interviews, lectures, exhibitions, gatherings, and commercial films. More than 1,200 of these items have been digitized and are currently being reviewed and described.
Still from Louise Bourgeois: The Spider, the Mistress, and the Tangerine. Marion Cajori and Amei Wallach, dirs. Art Kaleidoscope Foundation, 2008. © The Easton Foundation/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
The Easton Foundation Library contains two collections: The Bourgeois/Goldwater Collection, and the TEF Collection. Item types include books, periodicals, pamphlets, brochures, and more.
The Bourgeois/Goldwater Collection includes volumes from the home of Louise Bourgeois and her husband Robert Goldwater, as well as from Bourgeois's Brooklyn studio. The TEF Collection primarily includes publications from exhibitions organized with support of the Foundation. It also includes materials related to other artists, artist’s foundations, and archives and houses. Started in 2010, collection is ongoing.
Louise Bourgeois in her home, 1976, New York. Photo: Mark Setteducati, © The Easton Foundation/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York