For many, Louise Bourgeois, the French-born artist who emigrated to New York in 1938, conjures images of large, looming, yet oddly graceful spiders, like the ones she sculpted and that live, mute and immobile, at London's Tate Modern and at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Although Bourgeois, the daughter of tapestry repairers, often uses recycled materials, she's never been locked into sculpture and an exhibition of her recent prints is currently on view at Marquette University's Haggerty Museum of Art.
"Louise Bourgeois, Recent Projects," which runs until Sept. 30, pairs two limited-edition print series created in 2002 and 2003. It was curated by Haggerty assistant curator Annemarie Sawkins.
The former collects 12 images on vintage fabrics from an untitled suite of 25 screenprints by the 95-year-old artist. Inspired by earlier drawings and a series she created out of her old clothes, the prints -- made from old sheets used by her three sons -- are hand stitched minimalist works that are strikingly simple and intriguing in their ideation and execution.
There are 19 prints in "Fugue," which was originally a series of drawings created in a music composition book. Stylistically, the snaking, interweaving lines of color on stark backgrounds are closely related to the works on fabric, which makes matching the series for the Haggerty exhibition seem natural.
"Remaking or reweaving was a skill at the center of her mother's industry and one that underpins much of Bourgeois' own art, both in her insistent revisiting of themes and her recycling of materials," Frances Morris, senior curator at the Tate Modern has said.
The exhibition also contains a video of Bourgeois explaining her motivations -- familial and psychological -- behind the works on show.
"All my work, all my subjects," the artist herself notes, "have found their inspiration in my childhood. My childhood has never lost its magic, it has never lost its mystery, and it has never lost its drama."
Admission to the museum is free.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
