Destruction of the Father Reconstruction of the Father: Writings and Interviews 1923-1997 [Anglais] [Broché]

This collection of writings and statements by sculptor Bourgeois includes letters, journal entries, poetry, and interviews with the artist spanning the entire period from her student days to just last year. The impression created is one of lifelong preoccupation with a set of personal concerns that, as curator Bernadac says in the introduction, reflect "the fundamental dichotomy between professional control and spontaneity, between the conscious and the unconscious, between the expression that is structured, assembled, and thought through, and the expression that is presented raw, as the product of an urgent impulse." Readers not already familiar with Bourgeois's work will appreciate the small photographs of sculptures, drawings, and prints included. Recommended for scholarly and specialized collections.?Kathryn Wekselman, Univ. of Cincinnati Lib.
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"Everything she says is interesting, and much of it is funny. One reads through the book with a desire to turn down every second page or at least make asterisks in the margin... `Art comes from the inability to seduce. I am unable to make myself loved... I am the indefatigable seducer.'"

edited by Marie-Laure Bernadac and Hans-Ulrich Obrist "Everyday you have to abandon your past or accept it and then if you cannot accept it, you become a sculptor." Since the age of twelve, the internationally renowned sculptor Louise Bourgeois has been writing and drawing--first a diary precisely recounting the everyday events of her family life, then notes and reflections. Destruction of the Father--the title comes from the name of a sculpture she did following the death of her husband in 1973--contains both formal texts and what the artist calls "pen-thoughts": drawing-texts often connected to her drawings and sculptures, with stories or poems inscribed alongside the images. Writing is a means of expression that has gained increasing importance for Bourgeois, particularly during periods of insomnia. The writing is compulsive, but it can also be perfectly controlled, informed by her intellectual background, knowledge of art history, and sense of literary form (she has frequently published articles on artists, exhibitions, and art events). Bourgeois, a private woman "without secrets," has given numerous interviews to journalists, artists, and writers, expressing her views on her oeuvre, revealing its hidden meanings, and relating the connection of certain works to the traumas of her childhood. This book collects both her writings and her spoken remarks on art, confirming the deep links between her work and her biography and offering new insights into her creative process.

Marie-Laure Bernadac is chief curator of CAPC Musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux. She is the author of a monograph on Louise Bourgeois and the editor of The Writings of Picasso. Hans-Ulrich Obrist is a curator at ARC Musée d'art moderne de la Ville, Paris, and at the Museum in Progress, Vienna. He has edited writings by Gerhard Richter, Gilbert and George, and Leon Golub.