Louise Bourgeois in Focus at Tate Liverpool

Tate Liverpool is staging an exhibition of diverse works by the late French artist Louise Bourgeois.

The painter, printmaker and sculptor, born in Paris on Christmas Day 1911, enjoyed a seven-decade career and is widely recognised as one of the most important figures in modern and contemporary art.

Her work was often biographical and deeply personal, informed by childhood trauma, and Artist Rooms: Louise Bourgeois in Focus, which is running in parallel with a new exhibition of Lucian Freud’s work on the gallery’s second floor, centres on core themes of sexuality, motherhood and isolation.

Bourgeois, who died in 2010, had a complex relationship with her mother, and several of the pieces on show reflect the struggle between mother and child.

They include Spider I, symbolising both protector and predator, and Ode à Ma Mère, both created in 1995, as well as other work which examines pregnancy and the complexity of motherhood.

This new exhibition features pieces created in a mixture of media including paper, bronze, marble and fabric – the latter often coming from old pieces retained from the family tapestry business.

Artist Rooms is a collection of international and modern contemporary art owned jointly by Tate and National Galleries of Scotland.

Artist Rooms: Louise Bourgeois in Focus is at Tate Liverpool from July 24 to January 16, 2022 and is free.

Top: Spider I, 1995. Artist Rooms. Lent by the Easton Foundation.