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I am not what I am, I am what I do with my hands.

Louise Bourgeois

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Louise Bourgeois
Age: 98 †
Born: 1911
Born: January 1
Died: 2010
Died: January 1
Artist
Drawer
Engraver
Illustrator
Installation Artist
Jewelry Designer
Painter
Photographer
Printmaker
Sculptor
Visual Artist
Paris
France
Louise Goldwater
Bourgeois
Hands

More quotes by Louise Bourgeois

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The spider is an animal who eats mosquitoes. That's why I love the spider - it is the only way we have to deal with these insects.
Louise Bourgeois
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When I was growing up, all the women in my house were using needles. I've always had a fascination with the needle, the magic power of the needle. The needle is used to repair damage. It's a claim to forgiveness. It is never aggressive, it's not a pin.
Louise Bourgeois
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It is not a torment to be an artist. It is a privilege.
Louise Bourgeois
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Clothing is . . . an exercise in memory. It makes me explore the past: how did I feel when I wore that. They are like signposts in the search for the past.
Louise Bourgeois
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In my sculpture, it's not an image I am seeking, it's not an idea. My goal is to re-live a past emotion. My art is an exorcism, and beauty is something I never talk about.
Louise Bourgeois
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Every day you have to abandon your past or accept it and then, if you cannot accept it, you become a sculptor.
Louise Bourgeois
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My childhood has never lost its magic, it has never lost its mystery, and it has never lost its drama.
Louise Bourgeois
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It is a great privilege to be able to work with, and I suppose work off, my feelings through sculpture.
Louise Bourgeois
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If you are resentful, you keep the thing alive. So the way to go on is to get rid of it, in order to forgive in order to forget.
Louise Bourgeois
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A work of art doesn't have to be explained.
Louise Bourgeois
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I have drawn my whole life. My parents were in the tapestry restoration business, and as a young girl, I would draw in the missing parts of the tapestry that needed to be re-woven. My ability to draw made me indispensable to my parents.
Louise Bourgeois
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Horizontality is a desire to give up, to sleep. Verticality is an attempt to escape. Hanging and floating are states of ambivalence.
Louise Bourgeois
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I was raised a Catholic. But I am not religious. In my work, I am interested in real flesh and blood.
Louise Bourgeois
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Everyone should have the right to marry. To make a commitment to love someone forever is a beautiful thing.
Louise Bourgeois
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I dont watch TV. I dont use a computer, a fax or a cellphone.
Louise Bourgeois
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I was a runaway girl from France who married an American and moved to New York City. Im not sure I would have continued as an artist had I remained in Paris because of the family setup.
Louise Bourgeois
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My art is a form of restoration in terms of my feelings to myself and to others.
Louise Bourgeois
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My work disturbs people and nobody wants to be disturbed. They are not fully aware of the effect my work has on them, but they know it is disturbing.
Louise Bourgeois
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The Spider is an ode to my mother. She was my best friend. Like a spider, my mother was a weaver. . . Like spiders, my mother was very clever. Spiders are friendly presences that eat mosquitoes. We know that mosquitoes spread diseases and are therefore unwanted. So, spiders are helpful and protective, just like my mother.
Louise Bourgeois
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Sometimes it is necessary to make a confrontation-and I like that.
Louise Bourgeois