Reconciliation and Symbiosis in the Art of Louise Bourgeois

Abstract

Sentimentality is a magical force that can achieve and destroy. People have always been able to express their emotions in various outward ways, sublimating them into art. The artist creates the work of art, and in the same way that the artist expresses their feelings, thoughts and desires in their artworks, it is the process of objectifying their own emotions that allows the artist to speak out, organize and give vent to their feelings. In Louise Bourgeois' work one can see the desire to speak that art gives her, exploring timeless, universal emotions, especially violence, anxiety and fear stemming from the pain of her childhood deep in her memory. Her long career as an artist has carried her varying thoughts, whereas it is more worth discussing in her works the positive effects of art-making on the artist. From the presentation of her own painful life and the memorialization of her mother to the forgiveness of her father and self-relief, her works embody the powerful effect of art therapy, revealing in the process of creation an awareness of sentimental emotions, a confrontation with the inner world, and thus a sense of peace and redemption.