Steel, glass, wood, metal and red fabric
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
ARTIST ROOMS
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/louise-bourgeois-2351" aria-label="More by Louise Bourgeois" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Louise Bourgeois</a>
Cell XIV Portrait
ARTIST ROOMS 
Tate and National Galleries of Scotland. Lent by Artist Rooms Foundation 2011
abstraction
actions: expressive
anxiety
architecture
birth to death
birth to death - three heads
body
cage
cell
cell structure
Cerberus
classical myths: creatures
crime and punishment
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
enclosure
fear
figure
from recognisable sources
furnishings
head / face
imprisonment
man-made
memory
natural phenomena
objects
people
religion and belief
residential
screaming
society
suffering
symbols and personifications
table
universal concepts
vessels and containers
<p>For Bourgeois, the three-headed state is one of confusion, ambivalence and hysteria – as if the figure were being torn in different directions. Three was a significant number for Bourgeois as she was the middle child in a family of three and she herself had three children.</p><p><em>Gallery label, October 2016</em></p>
installation steel glass wood metal red fabric
26 October 2013 – 18 May 2014
2014-05-18
26 October 2013 – 18 May 2014
2014-05-18
2013-10-26
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Edinburgh, UK)
http://www.nationalgalleries.org/
2013-10-26
ARTIST ROOMS Louise Bourgeois
Collection based display
18 July 2014 – 12 October 2014
2014-10-12
18 July 2014 – 12 October 2014
2014-10-12
2014-07-18
Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (Middlesbrough, UK)
http://www.visitmima.com/
2014-07-18
ARTIST ROOMS 2014: Louise Bourgeois
Loan-out
16 January 2015 – 19 April 2015
2015-04-19
16 January 2015 – 19 April 2015
2015-04-19
2015-01-16
Southampton City Art Gallery (Southampton, UK)
http://www.southampton.gov.uk/leisure/arts
2015-01-16
ARTIST ROOMS 2015: Louise Bourgeois
Loan-out
10 June 2016 – 18 June 2017
2017-06-18
10 June 2016 – 18 June 2017
2017-06-18
2016-06-10
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2016-06-10
ARTIST ROOMS Louise Bourgeois
Collection based display
1 September 2017 – 18 November 2017
2017-11-18
1 September 2017 – 18 November 2017
2017-11-18
2017-09-01
Perth Museum & Art Gallery (Perth, UK)
http://www.pkc.gov.uk/
2017-09-01
ARTIST ROOMS 2017: Louise Bourgeois
Loan-out
22 January 2019 – 24 March 2019
2019-03-24
22 January 2019 – 31 March 2019
2019-03-31
2019-01-22
Kettle’s Yard (Cambridge, UK)
http://www.kettlesyard.co.uk/
2019-01-22
ARTIST ROOMS 2019: Louise Bourgeois
Loan-out
6 July 2021 – 16 January 2022
2022-01-16
6 July 2021 – 16 January 2022
2022-01-16
2021-07-06
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
2021-07-06
ARTIST ROOMS Louise Bourgeois
Collection based display
19 February 2022 – 15 May 2022
2022-05-15
19 February 2022 – 15 May 2022
2022-05-15
2022-02-19
Kunstmuseum Basel (Basel, Switzerland)
http://www.kunstmuseumbasel.ch
2022-02-19
Louise Bourgeois X Jenny Holzer .The Violence of Handwriting Across a Page
Loan-out
23 July 2022 – 6 October 2024
2024-10-06
18 March 2023 – 26 June 2023
2023-06-26
2023-03-18
Dorset Museum (Dorchester, UK)
8 July 2023 – 9 September 2023
2023-09-09
2023-07-08
Grundy Art Gallery (Blackpool, UK)
18 November 2023 – 11 February 2024
2024-02-11
2023-11-18
Burton Art Gallery and Museum (Bideford, UK)
2 March 2024 – 9 June 2024
2024-06-09
2024-03-02
Aberdeen Art Gallery (Aberdeen, UK)
http://www.aagm.co.uk
2022-07-23
Louise Bourgeois
Loan-out
Cell XIV (Portrait)
object: 1880 × 1219 × 1219 mm, 280 kg
<a href="/search?gid=999999788" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">ARTIST ROOMS</a> 
Tate and National Galleries of Scotland. Lent by Artist Rooms Foundation 2011
<div class="text">
<p>
<i>Cell XIV (Portrait)</i> is a multipart work consisting of a cage-like structure containing a red fabric sculpture of three faces that sit on top of a metal table. The three faces are stitched together and share a pedestal. The table sits slightly off-centre on the wooden base of the structure. The structure itself is a steel frame with panels of steel mesh and glass on three sides, with steel mesh on the remaining side and on its top. The wooden base that forms the bottom of the structure sits within the steel frame on four legs, meaning that the base is raised off the floor.</p>
<p>The ‘Cell’ structure is one that has appeared frequently in Bourgeois’s work from the late 1980s onwards. These installations are often constructed using salvaged architectural objects such as doors, windows, panes of glass, wood and, in the case of both <i>Cell XIV (Portrait)</i> and <i>Cell (Eyes and Mirrors) </i>1989–1993 (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/bourgeois-cell-eyes-and-mirrors-t06899" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T06899</span></a>), steel mesh around a steel frame. Bourgeois deliberately used the term ‘cell’ when describing these multipart works due to the diverse ways in which the word could be interpreted. In an interview in 1991 Bourgeois said:</p>
<p class="cttext">
</p><blockquote>‘Cellule’ Communiste, ‘cellule’ in a prison, and very, very especially, the ‘cellule’ of our blood. That is to say, little entities that are next to each other and are different from each other. Sometimes they repulse each other … So this is a cell. This is absolutely separate. So they are right next to each other like this, and they will not touch or talk to each other for a hundred years.<br/>(Quoted in Morris 2007, p.71.)</blockquote>
<p>The multiple readings of the term ‘cell’ are echoed in the ambiguous nature of the relationship between the structure of the cell, its contents and the viewer. The three heads of the central sculpture pull in different directions, perhaps representing the potential for conflicting thoughts and emotions within society as well as within oneself. Curator Lucy Askew has argued that the visible stitching on the heads represent both physical and emotional scars (Askew and d’Offay 2013, p.88). The contrast between the soft red fabric, stitched together to form the central sculpture, is in stark contrast with the cold, hard steel that forms the surround, thus highlighting the literal and figurative vulnerability of the three heads. Their mouths appear to gape, giving the impression that they are crying out in pain, anger or fear. These are recurring themes in each of Bourgeois’s ‘cell’ works. The artist described the role of fear and pain in the ‘cells’ in 1991:</p>
<p class="cttext">
</p><blockquote>The Cells represent different types of pain: the physical, the emotional and psychological, and the mental and intellectual. When does the emotional become the physical? When does the physical become the emotional? It’s a circle going round and round. Pain can begin at any point and turn in either direction. Each Cell deals with fear. Fear is pain. Often it is not perceived as pain, because it is always disguising itself. Each cell deals with the pleasure of the voyeur, the thrill of looking and being looked at. The Cells either attract or repulse each other. There is this urge to integrate, merge or disintegrate.<br/>(Quoted in Marie-Laure Bernadac and Hans-Ulrich Obrist (eds.), <i>Louise Bourgeois: Destruction of the Father, Reconstruction of the Father: Writings and Interviews 1923–1997</i>, London 1998, p.205.)</blockquote>
<p>Art historian Alex Potts has also argued that viewing the ‘cells’ is a voyeuristic experience, given that the viewer is kept at a distance from the central sculpture while still being able to observe it through opaque glass or steel mesh (Morris 2007, p.264).</p>
<p>
<b>Further reading</b>
<br/>Mignon Nixon, <i>Fantastic Reality: Louise Bourgeois and a Story of Modern Art</i>, London and Cambridge, Massachusetts 2005.<br/>Francis Morris (ed.), <i>Louise Bourgeois</i>,<i> </i>exhibition catalogue, Tate Modern, London 2007, pp.71, 264.<br/>Lucy Askew and Anthony d’Offay, <i>Louise Bourgeois: A Woman Without Secrets</i>, exhibition catalogue, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh 2013, p.88, reproduced pp.16, 53.</p>
<p>Allan Madden<br/>The University of Edinburgh<br/>October 2015</p>
<p>
<i>The University of Edinburgh is a research partner of ARTIST ROOMS.</i>
</p>
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Summary
2017-05-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div class="text">
<p>For Bourgeois, the three-headed state is one of confusion, ambivalence and hysteria – as if the figure were being torn in different directions. Three was a significant number for Bourgeois as she was the middle child in a family of three and she herself had three children.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2016-10-12T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
abstraction actions: expressive anxiety architecture birth to death birth to death - three heads body cage cell cell structure Cerberus classical myths: creatures crime and punishment emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas enclosure fear figure from recognisable sources furnishings head / face imprisonment man-made memory natural phenomena objects people religion and belief residential screaming society suffering symbols and personifications table universal concepts vessels and containers