Louise Bourgeois
My art is a form of restoration in terms of my feelings to myself and to others.Collection: Art
Space is something that you have to define. Otherwise, it is like anxiety, which is too vague. A fear is something specific. I like claustrophobic spaces, because at least then you know your limits.Collection: Fear
Tell your own story, and you will be interesting.
When my mother died, I fell apart. My father wanted to control me. As a consequence, I ran away to America.
To express your emotions, you have to be very loose and receptive. The unconscious will come to you if you have that gift that artists have. I only know if I'm inspired by the results.
I know that when I finish a drawing, my anxiety level decreases. The realistic drawings are a way of pinning down an idea. I don't want to loose it. With the abstract drawings, when I'm feeling loose, I can slip into the unconscious.
I was raised a Catholic. But I am not religious. In my work, I am interested in real flesh and blood.
I have drawn my whole life. My parents were in the tapestry restoration business, and as a young girl, I would draw in the missing parts of the tapestry that needed to be rewoven.
My childhood has never lost its mystery, and it has never lost its drama.
Even though what I do does enter the market, it doesn't interest me. I am exclusively concerned with the formal qualities of my work. It is about the need and the right to self-expression.
I have kept a diary as long as I can remember, and drawings are really another kind of diary.
Look at it this way - a totem pole is just a decorated tree. My work is a confessional.
I was a 'runaway girl' from France who married an American and moved to New York City. I'm not sure I would have continued as an artist had I remained in Paris because of the family setup.
I don't watch TV. I don't use a computer, a fax or a cellphone.
Art is restoration: the idea is to repair the damages that are inflicted in life, to make something that is fragmented - which is what fear and anxiety do to a person - into something whole.Collection: Art
Art is a way of recognizing oneself.Collection: Art
In my sculpture, it's not an image I am seeking, it's not an idea. My goal is to re-live a past emotion. My art is an exorcism, and beauty is something I never talk about.Collection: Art
A work of art does not need an explanation. The work has to speak for itself. The work may be subject to many interpretations, but only one was in the mind of the artist. Some artists say to make the work readable for the public is an artist’s responsibility, but I don’t agree with that. The only responsibility to be absolutely truthful to the self. My work disturbs people and nobody wants to be disturbed They are not fully aware of the effect my work has on them, but they know it is disturbing.Collection: Art
I am not what I am, I am what I do with my hands.Collection: Hands
The Spider is an ode to my mother. She was my best friend. Like a spider, my mother was a weaver. . . Like spiders, my mother was very clever. Spiders are friendly presences that eat mosquitoes. We know that mosquitoes spread diseases and are therefore unwanted. So, spiders are helpful and protective, just like my mother.Collection: Mother
One must accept the fact that others don’t see what you do.Collection: Facts
I have been to hell and back, and let me tell you, it was wonderful.Collection: Hell And Back
When I was growing up, all the women in my house were using needles. I've always had a fascination with the needle, the magic power of the needle. The needle is used to repair damage. It's a claim to forgiveness. It is never aggressive, it's not a pin.Collection: Growing Up
A work of art doesn't have to be explained. If you do not have any feeling about this, I cannot explain it to you. If this doesn't touch you, I have failed.Collection: Art
I came from a family of repairers. The spider is a repairer. If you bash into the web of a spider, she doesn't get mad. She weaves and repairs it.Collection: Mad
An artist can show things that other people are terrified of expressing.Collection: Art
The subject of pain is the business I am in - to give meaning and shape to frustration and suffering. The existence of pain cannot be denied. I propose no remedies or excuses.Collection: Pain
I always had the fear of being separated and abandoned. The sewing is my attempt to keep things together and make things whole.Collection: Together
To be an artist, you need to exist in a world of silence.Collection: Artist
Every day you have to abandon your past or accept it and then, if you cannot accept it, you become a sculptor.Collection: Past
Horizontality is a desire to give up, to sleep. Verticality is an attempt to escape. Hanging and floating are states of ambivalence.Collection: Giving Up
The feminists took me as a role model, as a mother. It bothers me. I am not interested in being a mother. I am still a girl trying to understand myself.Collection: Girl
Clothing is . . . an exercise in memory. It makes me explore the past: how did I feel when I wore that. They are like signposts in the search for the past.Collection: Art
My life has been regulated by insomnia.Collection: Sleep
If you are resentful, you keep the thing alive. So the way to go on is to get rid of it, in order to forgive in order to forget.Collection: Order
My work disturbs people and nobody wants to be disturbed. They are not fully aware of the effect my work has on them, but they know it is disturbing.Collection: People
To express your emotions, you have to be very loose and receptive. The unconscious will come to you if you have that gift that artists have. I only know if Im inspired by the results.Collection: Artist
I have drawn my whole life. My parents were in the tapestry restoration business, and as a young girl, I would draw in the missing parts of the tapestry that needed to be re-woven. My ability to draw made me indispensable to my parents.Collection: Girl
Sometimes it is necessary to make a confrontation-and I like that.Collection: Sometimes
What modern art means is that you have to keep finding new ways to express yourself, to express the problems, that there are no settled ways, no fixed approach. This is a painful situation, and modern art is about this painful situation of having no absolutely definite way of expressing yourself.Collection: Art
Surrealism is anathema for me. Because the surrealists made a joke of everything. And I consider life a tragedy.Collection: Tragedy
The spider is an animal who eats mosquitoes. That's why I love the spider - it is the only way we have to deal with these insects.Collection: Animal
I found in rules of mathematics a peace and a trust that I could not place in human beings. This sublimation was total and remained total.Collection: Learning
I like Francis Bacon best, because Francis Bacon has terrific problems, and he knows that he is not going to solve them, but he knows also that he can escape from day to day and stay alive, and he does that because his work gives him a kick.Collection: Giving
Artists have to be useful. They have to fill a role.Collection: Artist
Everyone should have the right to marry. To make a commitment to love someone forever is a beautiful thing.Collection: Beautiful
My knives are like a tongue - I love, I do not love, I hate. If you don’t love me, I am ready to attack. I am a double-edged knife.Collection: Hate
I dont watch TV. I dont use a computer, a fax or a cellphone.Collection: Fax