Louise Bourgeois

Biography

The career of artist and activist Louise Bourgeois spanned more than eight decades, but it was only in her later life that she began to be recognised as one of the giants of 20th-century art. Born and raised in Paris to the owners of a tapestry gallery and educated at the Sorbonne, she moved to New York in 1938. She went on to produce paintings, prints and – most famously – large-scale sculptural works, often confronting issues such as childhood trauma, family life, the body, sexuality and fear.