Louise Bourgeois, loose sheet of writing, c. 1959; LB-0464; © The Easton Foundation/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Louise Bourgeois's artistic achievement is matched only by her written output, which includes process notes, dream recordings, lists, and artist’s statements composed on loose sheets of paper, in notebooks, and even on the walls of her home. Bourgeois also kept diaries nearly every year from 1923 until 2006, documenting her daily life as a child, student, artist, wife, mother, and patient. She referenced these writings throughout her own life, both personally, in her audio diaries, and publicly, in books, interviews, and artworks.
A significant group of Bourgeois’s writings is comprised of over 1,000 loose sheets of paper now known as the psychoanalytic writings. This extensive output was created during her intensive psychoanalysis with Dr. Henry Lowenfeld between 1952 and 1966, and essentially replaced her artistic practice in the 1950s. Writing fluidly in French and English, she explicates her memories, symptoms and creative concerns in both stream-of-consciousness and analytical styles. Bourgeois continued to see Lowenfeld sporadically until his death in 1985, and also read and thought deeply about the subjects of psychology and psychoanalysis, as evidenced elsewhere in her papers, library, and career.
"Following the summer trend there was yesterday a tangible, positive return to the mother. yesterday in my sculpting I made drawings of breasts pressed against each other; there was a double attitude to be like a mother and liked by a mother…"
Transcribed and translated excerpt from Louise Bourgeois, loose sheet of writing, c. 1959; LB-0464; © The Easton Foundation/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Letter to William Rubin from a group of feminist artists and curators, 6 June 1973; LL-0214
The Easton Foundation/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York ©
Personal and professional correspondence, both incoming and outgoing, are included in the artist’s papers. Bourgeois's impulse to write extended to her letters, including many to her husband, family, friends, and gallerists.
A notable letter in the collection is one sent to MoMA by a group of feminist artists and curator in support of Louise Bourgeois (pictured):
"We would like to express our strong support for a large scale museum exhibition of the sculpture of Louise Bourgeois. Her work has been seen primarily in group shows for many years now. We feel this lack and know that we speak for others as well. In quality and in length of creative endeavor Bourgeois ranks with the best American sculptors. Interest in her work is higher than ever before. The time for museum recognition and the widest possible exposure is as soon as possible."
In the 1970's, Bourgeois was celebrated by artists and other members of the feminist and women's liberation movements. Although she rejected being labeled a feminist artist, Bourgeois was involved in early feminist artists groups, including the Women's Interart Center and the Ad Hoc Committee of Women Artists. Despite this support, it wasn't until 1982 that Bourgeois received significant institutional recognition with her retrospective at MoMA.
Exhibition announcement "Louise Bourgeois, Recent Work 1947–1949: Seventeen Standing Figures in Wood,” Peridot Gallery, New York, 1949; LBE-0026 © The Easton Foundation/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
The collection encompasses printed materials, including exhibition announcements, posters, press releases, pamphlets and more, dating from 1939-2010, most of which document the artist's career, as well as ephemera collected by Bourgeois from galleries, museums, and other places that she visited in France, New York, and elsewhere during her travels.
Louise Bourgeois, loose sheet of writing, c. 2008; LB-0516; © The Easton
Foundation/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York