Kukje Gallery is very pleased to present a unique historical exhibition of Louise Bourgeois sculptures. Titled Personages, this will be Bourgeois’ fifth solo exhibition at the Gallery since her first show in 2002. The current exhibition also marks the first show in Korea after her passing in 2010 at the age of 99. Bourgeois is widely celebrated as one of the twentieth century’s most important artists and her studio practice was characterized by an unwavering commitment to experimentation and multimedia work. She mastered genres as diverse as sculpture, drawing, installation and textiles—an eclecticism that both defines her genius and makes her significant formal and historical contributions defy easy categorization. The exhibition features early work created by Bourgeois from the 1940s through the early 1950s, with a focus on the eponymously named totemic works known as Personages.
The Personages were first shown as an environmental installation at the Peridot Gallery in New York City, in 1949 and in subsequent exhibitions there in 1950 and 1953. Free standing and life sized, these uncanny anthropomorphic works are a haunting symbolic representation of the artist’s family and friends whom she left behind in Paris when she moved to New York in 1938. The anxieties and emotional void she felt as a new wife, mother, and as a young artist in a strange city, are all embodied by these surrogate works. Described by Bourgeois as her first mature artistic effort, the Personages firmly established her as an important sculptor in post-war America.
Already widely known and loved in Korea, this exhibition aims to broaden the knowledge of the artist’s artistic evolution by showing early iconic works. By bringing together fourteen sculptures from the Personages series in addition to a single installation from her well-known series, Cells, the major themes of Bourgeois’ life work are presaged. By showcasing these powerful and highly personal early works, viewers are encouraged to identify with the artist’s life-long concern with psychology and the human condition, while simultaneously learning about her special biographical narrative.
Born in Paris in 1911, Louise Bourgeois is one of the most important artists of the twenty first century. Her first retrospective was held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1982. Since then, she has exhibited in major museums around the world and was awarded the Lion d’Or at the 48th Venice Biennale in 1999. Bourgeois’ work can be found in major international museums and collections, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and Bilbao, Museum of Modern Art, New York, Tate Modern, London and Centre Pompidou, Paris. A comprehensive, full-career retrospective of her work was organized by the Tate Modern, London and travelled to various institutions in Europe and the US from 2007 to 2009.
