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You must put the essence of what you want to say into a painting. The rest is arbitrary. Chosen with discernment, but chosen, and choice involves elimination.
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
Choices
Elimination
Must
Arbitrary
Involves
Chosen
Essence
Choice
Painting
Rest
Discernment
More quotes by Louise Bourgeois
A work of art doesn't have to be explained.
Louise Bourgeois
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
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
My knives are like a tongue - I love, I do not love, I hate. If you don’t love me, I am ready to attack. I am a double-edged knife.
Louise Bourgeois
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
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
My life has been regulated by insomnia.
Louise Bourgeois
An artist can show things that other people are terrified of expressing.
Louise Bourgeois
Art is a guarantee of sanity. That is the most important thing I have said.
Louise Bourgeois
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
A work of art doesn't have to be explained. If you do not have any feeling about this, I cannot explain it to you. If this doesn't touch you, I have failed.
Louise Bourgeois
One must accept the fact that others don’t see what you do.
Louise Bourgeois
For me, sculpture is the body. My body is my sculpture.
Louise Bourgeois
If you flatter me, or if you look at me the right way, I will kill myself to please you. It's very painful to be an overachiever.
Louise Bourgeois
I was raised a Catholic. But I am not religious. In my work, I am interested in real flesh and blood.
Louise Bourgeois
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
I always had the fear of being separated and abandoned. The sewing is my attempt to keep things together and make things whole.
Louise Bourgeois
My art is a form of restoration in terms of my feelings to myself and to others.
Louise Bourgeois
Everyone should have the right to marry. To make a commitment to love someone forever is a beautiful thing.
Louise Bourgeois
I am a searcher... I always was... and I still am... searching for the missing piece.
Louise Bourgeois
