--- type: exposition title: Louise Bourgeois language: en url: "https://www.belvedere.at/en/louise-bourgeois-0" --- # Louise Bourgeois ## Persistent Antagonism ![Gemälde einer Engelähnlichen Figur auf einem Kamin aus Backstein](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/header_cropped_1920x480_fp/public/2023-04/roof-song-0344-EI_LG_0.jpg.webp?itok=yfJFPUrM) **Duration:** 22 September 2023 - 28 January 2024 Discover Louise Bourgeois’s paintings as part of the Belvedere’s three-hundred-year jubilee. The Belvedere will dedicate a major solo exhibition to an artist who, like virtually no other, has shaped the art of today. Presented in the Baroque galleries of the Lower Belvedere, Louise Bourgeois’s paintings from the 1940s will be placed in dialogue with a selection of sculptures, installations, drawings, and prints from all periods of her storied career. In an oeuvre which covered a wide range of formal and material experimentation, Bourgeois succeeded in expressing contradictory impulses and binary oppositions – figuration and abstraction, male and female, conscious and unconscious – within a single work. By the 1990s, she had won global renown for her artistic achievements, becoming famous for her monumental spider sculptures and room-sized Cells. But it was in her oil paintings made between 1938 and 1949 that the French-American artist first developed the formal vocabulary and defined the thematic concerns that she would continue to explore over the following seven decades. The exhibition represents the first time these paintings will be exhibited as a body of work in Europe, and it is the first major exhibition of Bourgeois’s work in Vienna in a generation. Curated by Sabine Fellner and Johanna Hofer. ### [Lower Belvedere](https://www.belvedere.at/en/visit/lower-belvedere) **Opening hours:** Monday to Sunday, 10 am - 6 pm **Address:** Lower Belvedere, 1030 Vienna ([Getting there]()) [Tickets](https://www.belvedere.at/en/tickets?location%5B0%5D=3) ##### In cooperation with - Kurier - [Parnass](https://www.parnass.at/) ## Impressions - ![Ausstellungsansicht Louise Bourgeois. Unbeirrbarer Widerstand, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, 2023 — Installation view Louise Bourgeois. Persistent Antagonism, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, 2023 — Photo: Johannes Stoll, © The Easton Foundation / Bildrecht, Vienna 2023](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/equal_height_slider_1x/public/2023-09/UB%20Louise%20Bourgeois%20Presse%2000.jpg.webp?itok=fQ3Jaz1A) - ![Ausstellungsansicht Louise Bourgeois. Unbeirrbarer Widerstand, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, 2023 — Installation view Louise Bourgeois. Persistent Antagonism, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, 2023 — Photo: Johannes Stoll, © The Easton Foundation / Bildrecht, Vienna 2023](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/equal_height_slider_1x/public/2023-09/UB%20Louise%20Bourgeois%20Presse%2003.jpg.webp?itok=B-h_Ongi) - ![Ausstellungsansicht Louise Bourgeois. Unbeirrbarer Widerstand, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, 2023 — Installation view Louise Bourgeois. Persistent Antagonism, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, 2023 — Photo: Johannes Stoll, © The Easton Foundation / Bildrecht, Vienna 2023](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/equal_height_slider_1x/public/2023-09/UB%20Louise%20Bourgeois%20Presse%209.jpg.webp?itok=3MYxlL_P) - ![Ausstellungsansicht Louise Bourgeois. Unbeirrbarer Widerstand, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, 2023 — Installation view Louise Bourgeois. Persistent Antagonism, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, 2023 — Photo: Johannes Stoll, © The Easton Foundation / Bildrecht, Vienna 2023](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/equal_height_slider_1x/public/2023-09/UB%20Louise%20Bourgeois%20Presse%2010.jpg.webp?itok=BgfEV-lZ) - ![Ausstellungsansicht Louise Bourgeois. Unbeirrbarer Widerstand, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, 2023 — Installation view Louise Bourgeois. Persistent Antagonism, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, 2023 — Photo: Johannes Stoll, © The Easton Foundation / Bildrecht, Vienna 2023](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/equal_height_slider_1x/public/2023-09/UB%20Louise%20Bourgeois%20Presse%2014.jpg.webp?itok=RqiithRq) ## Biography - ![Schwarz/Weiß Porträt der jungen Louise Bourgeois in ihrem Atelier in New York — Louise Bourgeois in the studio of her apartment at 142 East 18th Street in NYC, circa 1946 — Photo: © The Easton Foundation / Bildrecht, Vienna 2023 and VAGA at ARS, NY](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/full_content_width_no_crop/public/2023-04/1946-LB-0209-NY-studio-easel_LG_0.jpg.webp?itok=azyGB-oK) - ![Gemälde einer Engelähnlichen Figur auf einem Kamin aus Backstein — Louise Bourgeois, ROOF SONG, 1947 — Photo: Eeva Inkeri, © The Easton Foundation / Bildrecht, Vienna 2023 — Private Collection, New Jersey](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/full_content_width_no_crop/public/2023-04/roof-song-0344-EI_LG_0.jpg.webp?itok=Lc4I9roZ) - ![Ölgemälde, auf dem ein Frauentorso in rosa Farbe abgebildet ist, anstelle des Kopfs ist ein Haus dem Torso aufgesetzt — Louise Bourgeois, Femme Maison, 1946-1947 — Photo: Christopher Burke, © The Easton Foundation / Bildrecht, Vienna 2023](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/full_content_width_no_crop/public/2023-08/femme-maison-3351-CB_LG.jpg.webp?itok=jGRxnEFV) - ![Ölgemälde in orange- und Brauntönen — Louise Bourgeois, Untitled, 1947 — Photo: Christopher Burke, © The Easton Foundation / Bildrecht, Vienna 2023 — Collection Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/full_content_width_no_crop/public/2023-04/untitled-0322-CB_LG_0.jpg.webp?itok=H11LJglQ) - ![Gemälde einer heraufschauenden Frau mit blau und lilafarbenem HIntergrund — Louise Bourgeois, Untitled, 1945-47 — Photo: Christopher Burke, © The Easton Foundation / Bildrecht, Vienna 2023 — Collection The Easton Foundation, New York](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/full_content_width_no_crop/public/2023-04/untitled-0037-CB_LG_0.jpg.webp?itok=nuBm5Y3y) - ![Gemälde, das eine Schneelandschaft mit einem Haus in der Ferne in der Mitte des Bilds zeigt, im Vordergrund sind Menschenschatten auf einem orangefarbenen HIntergrund zu erkennen — Louise Bourgeois, Confrérie, 1940 — Photo: Scott Hess, © The Easton Foundation / Bildrecht, Vienna 2023 — Private Collection, California](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/full_content_width_no_crop/public/2023-04/confrerie-0743-SH_LG_0.jpg.webp?itok=qiaEbmRF) - ![Ölgemälde, auf dem ein Frauenkopf neben einem schwarzen Haus auf rotem und blauen Hintergrund abgebildet ist — Louise Bourgeois, Fallen Woman (Femme Maison), 1946-47 — Photo: Christopher Burke, © The Easton Foundation / Bildrecht, Vienna 2023](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/full_content_width_no_crop/public/2022-10/Louise%20Bourgeois_FALLEN%20WOMAN%20%28FEMME%20MAISON%29_1946-47_Photo%20Christopher%20Burke%20%C2%A9%20The%20Easton%20Foundation.jpg.webp?itok=UgsINIMA) - ![Gemälde eines Mädchens mit langen goldfarbenen Haaren und Tasche in der Hand zwischen Meer und Gebirge — Louise Bourgeois, The Runaway Girl, 1938 — Photo: Christopher Burke, © The Easton Foundation / Bildrecht, Vienna 2023](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/full_content_width_no_crop/public/2022-10/Louise%20Bourgeois_THE%20RUNAWAY%20GIRL_1938_Photo%20Christopher%20Burke%20%C2%A9%20The%20Easton%20Foundation.jpg.webp?itok=LuQmmxTk) - ![Gemälde einer Landschaft aus Bäumen in dunklen Farben — Louise Bourgeois, Untitled, 1945 — Photo: Christopher Burke, © The Easton Foundation / Bildrecht, Vienna 2023](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/full_content_width_no_crop/public/2022-10/Louise%20Bourgeois_UNTITLED_1945_Photo%20Christopher%20Burke%20%C2%A9%20The%20Easton%20Foundation.jpg.webp?itok=0pmVFZwc) Louise Bourgeois (b. Paris, 1911, d. New York, 2010) is one of the most influential artists of the past century. Although she lived and worked in New York from 1938 until her death in 2010, much of her inspiration was derived from her childhood in France. Using the body as a primary form, Bourgeois explored the full range of human experience. From intimate drawings to room-sized installations, and in a variety of materials (including wood, marble, bronze, and fabric), she physically manifested her anxieties in order to exorcise them. Themes of love, fear, guilt, abandonment, and reconciliation are at the core of her complex oeuvre. Bourgeois was named Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French minister of culture in 1983. Other honors include the Grand Prix National de Sculpture from the French government in 1991; the National Medal of Arts in 1997; and the French medal of Commander of the Legion of Honor in 2008. She represented the United States at the Venice Biennale in 1993, and in 1999 was awarded the Biennale’s Golden Lion for a living master of contemporary art. Bourgeois’s work has been the subject of several major traveling retrospectives, including those organized by the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Kunstverein, Frankfurt; Tate Modern, London; the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; and Haus der Kunst, Munich. Recent solo exhibitions have been on view at the Jewish Museum, New York; the Hayward Gallery, London; the Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. ## Smartify Audiotour ![Gemälde einer Engelähnlichen Figur auf einem Kamin aus Backstein — Louise Bourgeois, ROOF SONG, 1947 — Photo: Eeva Inkeri, © The Easton Foundation / Bildrecht, Vienna 2023 — Private Collection, New Jersey](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/full_content_width_no_crop/public/2023-04/roof-song-0344-EI_LG_0.jpg.webp?itok=Lc4I9roZ) [**Louise Bourgeois. Persistent Antagonism**](https://www.belvedere.at/en/louise-bourgeois-0) This is the first exhibition in Europe to showcase the paintings by Louise Bourgeois, considered one of the greatest artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. Accompanied by the artist’s own words, the show places these important early works in dialogue with her later graphic art, sculptures, and installations. --- Available in: ?? ?? 22 September 2023 to 28 January, 2024 Lower Belvedere 15 audio stops, 40 min. [More](https://www.belvedere.at/en/discover/smartify-audiotour) ## Videos **Louise Bourgeois. Persistent Antagonism (Part 1)** **Louise Bourgeois. Persistent Antagonism (Part 2)** **Louise Bourgeois. Persistent Antagonism (Part 3)** **Louise Bourgeois. Persistent Antagonism (Part 4)** **Louise Bourgeois. Persistent Antagonism (Part 5)** **Louise Bourgeois. Persistent Antagonism (Part 6)**