Sculptor Louise Bourgeois died over the weekend. She was 98. It seems fitting that all these retrospectives about her life and career ran over Memorial Day weekend. When it comes to artists, she’s a good one to remember.
But let’s say you want to do more than read her fawning obits. Let’s say you want to get out there and see some of her artwork. Where do you go? Sadly, your first guess—the Donald M. Kendall Sculpture Gardens on the grounds of Pepsico HQ—doesn’t feature any of her work. (I was as surprised as you are.) But all is not lost. There are a few pieces of hers in the area, if you’re willing to take a Bourgeois-inspired day trip. Here’s where to go:
Neuberger Museum of Art
Purchase, NY
The current exhibition, Living with Art: Collecting Contemporary in Metro New York, features selections from six major private collections in the area. One of the collectors happened to lend the museum his Louise Bourgeois. Femme Couteau is a sculpture that resembles a woman lying on her back.
Dia:Beacon
Beacon, NY
Bourgeois has always been one of the mainstay artists at Dia:Beacon. Look for her long-term installations, which feature free forms suspended from the gallery ceiling. I’m not sure if it’s still there, but I know in the past that Dia:Beacon also has had one of her famed monumental spider sculptures.
Storm King Art Center
Mountainville, NY
Great sculptures abound in this outdoor art museum, but to see the Louise Bourgeois you’ll have to head indoors. There, in the on-site museum, you’ll find Number Seventy-Two (The No March), transplanted from the Whitney. The sculpture is made up of a field of 1,000 individually cut marble cylinders. Storm King quotes Bourgeois as saying: “The No March also means accepting you’re almost nobody, [that] you have to merge with thousands like you.”
Did I miss any in the area? Let me know in the comments.
Photograph by Colleen A. Zlock.
