The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 25, 2024

Untitled or The Burning Pin

Untitled or The Burning Pin

1990
(American, 1911–2010)
Sheet: 49.3 x 56.2 cm (19 7/16 x 22 1/8 in.); Image: 31 x 38 cm (12 3/16 x 14 15/16 in.)
© The Easton Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Catalogue raisonné: Wye 96
Location: not on view

Description

Louise Bourgeois was an artist of remarkable power and mystery. She believed that making art is the process of giving tangible form to, and thus exorcising, the gripping, subconscious states of being that fill one with anxiety. Her unique vision has resulted in an extremely personal body of work of emotional intensity that defies easy definition. Bourgeois comments on spirals: "This is a way of going on . . . it is like a thread of thought . . . or a dance . . . you go here, you go there . . . you keep reaching out to others. It is wishful. You can not hurt me . . . you can not stop me . . . you can not break my thread of thought. I made it into a pattern . . . it is a kind of grid . . . there is order. Then there is the safety pin. I like the idea of the safety pin . . . it is dangerous, but it also holds up my whole attire. Safety pins can keep things together . . . they can prevent catastrophe."
  • Julie Mehretu: Portals (FRONT International: Oh, Gods of Dust and Rainbows). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 16-November 13, 2022).
    Changing Dimensions: Works on Paper by Sculptors. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 22, 1995-January 24, 1996).
  • {{cite web|title=Untitled or The Burning Pin|url=false|author=Louise Bourgeois|year=1990|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1991.229