Louise Bourgeois. Extrême tension

This exhibition dedicated to the graphic work of Louise Bourgeois brings together for the first time the collections of the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Centre Pompidou. It is also the first exhibition dedicated to the artist in a Parisian public institution since 2008.

A major figure in contemporary art, Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010) developed her work on the fringes of the major movements that marked the 20th century — Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism… — creating a deeply personal language that continues to profoundly influence numerous artists.

Settling in New York in 1938, she discovered engraving in Stanley William Hayter's Atelier 17 — a technique that, along with drawing, would become essential to her entire oeuvre.

Engraving, drawing, and sculpture mutually nourish each other; words are inscribed in images; gestures repeat like rituals.

In 1995, the Musée national d’art moderne – Centre Pompidou and the Bibliothèque nationale de France dedicated two distinct exhibitions to her graphic work, drawings on one side, engravings and books on the other.

On this occasion, the Bibliothèque nationale de France received an exceptional donation from the artist: a hundred plates covering the entirety of her production, a collection subsequently enriched by regular donations from the Amis de la BnF.

The Cabinet d’art graphique of the Centre Pompidou, for its part, acquired recent drawings, mainly from the 1990s, to which several consecutive donations from the artist, the Clarence Westbury Foundation, and the American Friends of the Centre Pompidou were added.

Today, the Centre Pompidou holds 91 works (drawings, prints, sculpture, and installation) and the BnF more than a hundred prints as well as eight artist's books.

By bringing together these two complementary collections for the first time, the exhibition allows for an understanding of the interdependence of drawing and engraving in Louise Bourgeois's work, and highlights the main themes that punctuate her oeuvre.