Review: Louise Bourgeois: The Fabric Works @ Hauser & Wirth London, Savile Row

By tikichris Last edited 161 months ago
Review: Louise Bourgeois: The Fabric Works @ Hauser & Wirth London, Savile Row

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Photo by Christopher Burke, courtesy Hauser & Wirth, © Louise Bourgeois Trust

“The Fabric Works” features more than seventy of Louise Bourgeois's fabric drawings as well as four large-scale sculptures (rest assured there's a signature Bourgeois giant mother spider for you to ponder). Made between 2002 and 2008 from clothes and other domestic effects collected by the artist over her decades long career, her fabric works are abstract in design yet intensely personal.

This posthumous exhibition provides an intimate look at many of Bourgeois's last creations. Said the artist of her sewn art, “I always had the fear of being separated and abandoned. The sewing is my attempt to keep things together and make things whole”. Perhaps not as immediately enthralling as that glorious retrospective at Tate Modern in 08, curator Germano Celant hones in on the endearing and enduring qualities that continue to confirm Bourgeois's position as one of the 20th century's most pioneering artists (and one of the early 21st's most famously prolific).

“The Fabric Works” marks the opening of contemporary art behemoth Hauser & Wirth's new space at 23 Savile Row. With 15,000 square feet of exhibition space, it's a dandy of a setting for viewing art and promises plenty of “larger exhibitions and more expansive installations” to come.

“Louise Bourgeois: The Fabric Works” is on view at Hauser & Wirth, 23 Savile Row, W1S 2ET until 18 December 2010. Visit www.hauserwirth.com for more information.

Last Updated 15 October 2010