Photograph, gelatin silver print on paper
Portraits
Tate Collection
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ARTIST ROOMS
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/robert-mapplethorpe-11413" aria-label="More by Robert Mapplethorpe" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Robert Mapplethorpe</a>
Louise Bourgeois
ARTIST ROOMS
Acquired jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland through The d'Offay Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Art Fund 2008
actions: expressive
actions: processes and functions
adults
artist, sculptor
arts and entertainment
Bourgeois, Louise
Bourgeois, Louise, sculpture
carrying / holding
clothing and personal items
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<p>In this black and white portrait photograph the French-American artist Louise Bourgeois (1911–2010) stands slightly to the right of the frame against a plain grey background. She is shown from her waist up with her body in three quarter profile, and her face turned towards the camera. She wears a dark, tufted monkey fur coat and has one of her sculptures tucked under her right arm, holding it in place with her right hand. This phallic shaped sculpture, <span>Fillette</span>,<span> </span>which translates as ‘little girl’ in French, is a plaster work covered in latex made fourteen years earlier. Bourgeois smiles somewhat mischievously at the camera.</p>
paper print photograph gelatin silver
19 December 2009 – 27 March 2010
2010-03-27
19 December 2009 – 27 March 2010
2010-03-27
2009-12-19
Graves Art Gallery (Sheffield, UK)
http://www.museums-sheffield.org.uk/coresite/html/graves.asp
2009-12-19
ARTIST ROOMS 2009: Robert Mapplethorpe
Loan-out
25 September 2010 – 21 November 2010
2010-11-21
25 September 2010 – 21 November 2010
2010-11-21
2010-09-25
Towner (Eastbourne, UK)
http://www.townereastbourne.org.uk/
2010-09-25
ARTIST ROOMS 2010: Robert Mapplethorpe
Loan-out
1 March 2012 – 8 July 2012
2012-07-08
1 March 2012 – 8 July 2012
2012-07-08
2012-03-01
Burgh Hall (Dunoon, UK)
2012-03-01
ARTIST ROOMS 2012: Mapplethorpe Scottish Tour
Loan-out
20 July 2012 – 28 October 2012
2012-10-28
20 July 2012 – 28 October 2012
2012-10-28
2012-07-20
Linlithgow Burgh Halls (Linlithgow, UK)
2012-07-20
ARTIST ROOMS 2012: Mapplethorpe Scottish Tour
Loan-out
10 November 2012 – 27 April 2013
2013-04-27
10 November 2012 – 27 April 2013
2013-04-27
2012-11-10
Perth Museum & Art Gallery (Perth, UK)
http://www.pkc.gov.uk/
2012-11-10
ARTIST ROOMS 2012: Mapplethorpe Scottish Tour
Loan-out
9 May 2014 – 26 October 2014
2014-10-26
9 May 2016 – 26 October 2016
2016-10-26
2016-05-09
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2014-05-09
Mapplethorpe Self Portraits and Portraits
Collection based display
8 August 2015 – 7 November 2015
2015-11-07
8 August 2015 – 7 November 2015
2015-11-07
2015-08-08
Aberystwyth Arts Centre (Aberystwyth, UK)
2015-08-08
ARTIST ROOMS 2015: Robert Mapplethorpe
Loan-out
15 December 2018 – 23 March 2019
2019-03-23
15 December 2018 – 23 March 2019
2019-03-23
2018-12-15
Atkinson Art Gallery (Southport, UK)
2018-12-15
ARTIST ROOMS 2018: Robert Mapplethorpe
Loan-out
23 July 2022 – 6 October 2024
2024-10-06
23 July 2022 – 19 November 2022
2022-11-19
2022-07-23
Rugby Art Gallery and Museum (Rugby, UK)
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
6 July 2024 – 6 October 2024
2024-10-06
2024-07-06
Compton Verney (Compton Verney, UK)
2022-07-23
Louise Bourgeois
Loan-out
Louise Bourgeois
support: 375 × 374 mm
frame: 645 × 620 × 38 mm
<a href="/search?gid=999999788" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">ARTIST ROOMS</a>
Acquired jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland through The d'Offay Donation with assistance from the <a href="/search?gid=999999967" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">National Heritage Memorial Fund</a> and the <a href="/search?gid=999999968" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Art Fund</a> 2008
<div class="text">
<p>In this black and white portrait photograph the French-American artist Louise Bourgeois (1911–2010) stands slightly to the right of the frame against a plain grey background. She is shown from her waist up with her body in three quarter profile, and her face turned towards the camera. She wears a dark, tufted monkey fur coat and has one of her sculptures tucked under her right arm, holding it in place with her right hand. This phallic shaped sculpture, <i>Fillette</i>,<i> </i>which translates as ‘little girl’ in French, is a plaster work covered in latex made fourteen years earlier. Bourgeois smiles somewhat mischievously at the camera.</p>
<p>This photograph was taken by Mapplethorpe at his studio on Bond Street, New York, in 1982. His biographer Patricia Morrisroe notes that he was not an intrusive photographer and if his sitters used props it was normally their own decision or idea, which was the case with this image. Bourgeois was convinced that the shoot was going to be a disaster, so she prepared for it: ‘I could not imagine what would go wrong but I knew that everything would go wrong if I was not prepared. So even though I travel light, I did take a piece of mine.’ (Cited in <i>Arena: Robert Mapplethorpe</i>, 18 March 1988.) She chose to take <i>Fillette </i>as she knew that she would get ‘comfort from holding and rocking the piece’ (cited in Nixon 2005, p.80). Mapplethorpe described this shoot and Bourgeois herself as surreal: ‘you couldn’t, sort of tell her too much, she was just there.’ (Cited in <i>Arena: Robert Mapplethorpe</i>, 18 March 1988.)</p>
<p>Louise Bourgeois worked as an artist from the 1930s until her death in 2010. Like Robert Mapplethorpe, Bourgeois often made art that was sexually explicit. She identified the connection between Mapplethorpe and herself: ‘I thought that it was a good collaboration because he is famous, not for his flower pictures, he is famous for his objectionable, sexual representation ... he is famous as a controversial artist and this photograph fitted in his album.’ (Cited in <i>Arena: Robert Mapplethorpe</i>, 18 March 1988.)</p>
<p>The intention of this shoot with Mapplethorpe was to produce a portrait for the catalogue of Bourgeois’s retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1982. The museum used the portrait for the catalogue’s cover, but cropped it to a head shot, eliminating <i>Fillette. </i>This selective cropping stripped the image of its erotic humour and as the artist herself stated: ‘The glint in the eye refers to the thing I’m carrying. But they cut it. They cut it because the museum was so prudish.’ (Cited in Nixon 2005, p.73.) Art historian Mignon Nixon notes how Mapplethorpe’s photographic style enhances the image, through the ‘pristine limpidity’ of the print and by ‘delicately picking out the rhyme of flesh within the frame of an image bristling with transgressive humour’ (Nixon 2005, p.73).</p>
<p>
<b>Further reading</b>
<br/>
<i>Arena: Robert Mapplethorpe</i>, dir. by Nigel Finch, BBC television documentary, 18 March 1988.<br/>Patricia Morrisroe, <i>Mapplethorpe. A Biography</i>,<i> </i>London 1995.<br/>Mignon Nixon, <i>Fantastic Reality: Louise Bourgeois and a Story of Modern Art, </i>Cambridge, Massachusetts 2005, pp.71–81.</p>
<p>Susan Mc Ateer<br/>The University of Edinburgh<br/>February 2013</p>
<p>
<i>The University of Edinburgh is a research partner of ARTIST ROOMS</i>.</p>
</div>

Summary
2013-07-05T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<p>Louise Bourgeois is a French-born, American artist, who began making surrealist-inspired paintings and prints, but turned to sculpture in the late 1940s. Her sculptures, often but not always abstract, have strong allusions to the human body and especially to human sexuality. In this photograph she is carrying one of her own works, a phallic-shaped sculpture that her right hand is holding in a suggestive manner. Her smile is very knowing.</p>

Online caption
2009-04-16T00:00:00
online-caption
ONLINE_CAPTION
actions: expressive actions: processes and functions adults artist, sculptor arts and entertainment Bourgeois, Louise Bourgeois, Louise, sculpture carrying / holding clothing and personal items coat fine art and design, named works individuals: female named individuals objects people portraits smiling woman work and occupations