Arts Does This Look Like A Louise Bourgeois To You?
posted by December 13 at 16:57 PM
onOr does it look more like a halfhearted commission?
I’m reserving judgment until Bourgeois’s male nude fountain (drawing here) is finished at the Olympic Sculpture Park next month, but this photograph of the father-and-son figures from her studio doesn’t look promising. The figures are stiff, undistinguished, and utterly unpathological. Considering Bourgeois’s legendary loathing of her father and fixation on her mother, she’s a strange choice for this commission. And now that the men appear to be so neutral? I hate to even ask, but could it be that the nonagenarian artist isn’t, well, terribly invested in this piece?
We’ll see.
Comments
It looks like a trite abomination to me, and I heartily encourage all the young vandals of this city to paint it, break its arms off, etc.
Oh Fnarf, I think it should have it's dong broken off, just like in The Goonies. Then stuck back on with superglue.
I like it better with the backstory. Now it looks cold and weirdly ironic. The figures also look like they're in danger of dislocating their elbows.
I don't know if it's good art or bad art -- all I know ix that I have one hell of an erection right now.
"Santorum" isn't the only word Dan Savage has injected (sigh) into the American lexicon. Too use another, I'm thinking that statue is a bit Nambish. Even worse, it's a bit 80's.
I wish it were more bulbous and cock-ish like her other work...
It looks like something out of Cold-War era Eastern Europe. I have a son and in this picture I get no feeling of the love or irritation or fatigue or pride or worry or daily rebirth of the feeling of wonder.
I had envisioned something more earthy along the lines of the "Old Man - young Boy" piece in the Gustav Vigeland Sculpture Park, Oslo Norway.
http://gradfinder.com/p/grad/gallery.cgi?who=UmFuZG9tSVbfo3KyQITdL/zMGgqy2j8uXizJiuZP/SD7UwD7swS0ynwZs1VtOM8YRszRsB4ZqUi54vvvd7z0ziQsE0xd_2cEfXhTeFJgj9KPmsGKY8La11UOrgJ92GetyHq7K0v9PzLYuanAeTwoKi7Vi_HhhS2aF4V2gveOsGBxI77/hhS7YQOms8kW9FCW&aid=4619&action=view
Wasn't it a stipulation of the benefactor's will that the statue have large male genitalia? This man looks like the water in the fountain is very cold.
If I remember correctly the commission was for a sculpture involving realistic male nudes. If this is in fact the case I am giving Bourgeois full credit. These are some realistic male nudes. As for the expressions on the faces, I don’t think they are important for this piece. The pieces seem to be more about the distance and the water that is a barrier. If the commission didn’t need realism, I think Bourgeois would have taken facial features out all together. I didn’t like the proposal, personally, but I think Bourgeois will deliver the sculpture she proposed. With all it’s intended meanings and context.
Well, so far the subjects appear totally unconcerned about bridging the distance or that there is any distance.
Please don't get in the business of critiquing unfinished art, and perhaps particularly pieces of site-specific art still sitting a long ways off from anything resembling their intended location and position.
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