Spider woman

Bourgeois, who died Monday in New York of a heart attack, was considered one of the most important living artists.

Her materials and subjects over the years were varied, running from metal sculptures to installations to works in wood; major themes were female psychology and sexuality.

Early life

Bourgeois was born in France in 1911, the daughter of a couple who ran a tapestry restoration workshop. She studied art at a number of academies, and married US art historian Robert Goldwater.

The couple left Paris for New York in 1938. There, she got to know other famous artists of the time, such as Joan Miro, Marcel Duchamp and Andre Breton.

Brutal, psychosexual themes

She became famous in the 1970s with works that grew increasingly brutal and violent, and were often psychosexual in nature. One of her gigantic steel spider sculptures - which leave the people walking around them looking like tiny insects themselves - is titled "Mama." Another installation is called "The Destruction of the Father."

In 1982, the Museum of Modern Art in New York put together the first Bourgeois retrospective, and in 1995, the Museum of Modern Art in Paris paid the artist the same honor. The news of Bourgeois' death was released by the Emilio and Annabianca Vedova Foundation, in Venice, Italy, which is currently preparing an exhibition of the Bourgeois' work.

Dual exhibition in Berlin

In Germany, Bourgeois' works can currently be seen at the Scharf-Gerstenberg Collection in Berlin. An exhibition titled "Double Sexus" - the title is taken from a book by Henry Miller - pairs some 70 works by Bourgeois and German sculptor Hans Bellmer.

The sexually charged works of both artists make for easy comparison, with striking parallels but also clear differences of intent. Bourgeois and Bellmer didn't know one another, although their paths must have crossed in Paris, where they both lived in the Surrealist heyday. Both artists also emigrated to New York in 1938.

jen/dpa/afp
Editor: Kate Bowen