Louise Bourgeois, Extreme Tension. Drawings and Engravings

Exhibition co-organized by the National Library of France (BnF) and the Centre Pompidou. Known for her sculptures, the Franco-American artist Louise Bourgeois (1911–2010) explored a wide variety of styles and techniques throughout her career. Drawing and engraving— which she began studying in the early 1940s and practiced during two periods of her life, between 1939 and 1949, and then from 1989 until her death—form the foundation of her entire work. In 1995, the Musée National d’Art Moderne – Centre Pompidou and the Bibliothèque nationale de France dedicated two separate exhibitions to her graphic work, with drawings on one side and engravings and books on the other. Thirty years later, the two institutions selected from their now enriched and complementary collections about one hundred works on paper dating from 1942 to 2008. The exhibition illuminates the interdependent links between drawing and engraving, as seen, for example, in the monumental and previously unseen series.

Louise Bourgeois, Stamps of Memories II, 1994 - Courtesy of the artits and Bibliothèque nationale de France (Site Richelieu).