Louise Bourgeois
Installation

In the dimly-lit space, Louise Bourgeois showed work, made between 1970 ad 1974, including plaster pieces, brass objects suspended from the ceiling, and smoothly polished marble clusters on rough-hewn bases. Dominating the show was a large environmental work, The Destruction of the Father (also known as Le Repas du Soir) in which bulbous latex forms were arranged along the interior walls of a black, tent-like structure. “The forms are anatomical, ambivalent, and threatening. Through them, the artist explores the relationships of the nuclear family: the splitting up of our fragile family universe. It is the story of aggression and anxiety. Previous works by Louise Bourgeois have concerned themselves with female shapes where the protective mother is eternal. Now the mother comes back again and the father tries to creep in.” [from the artist’s press release]

Excerpted from Brentano, R., & Savitt, M. (1981). 112 Workshop, 112 Greene Street: History, artists & artworks. New York: New York University Press.