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Wednesday, January 3, 2007

Googling Louise Bourgeois

posted by on January 3 at 12:27 PM

Right now I’m obsessed with sculpture. Particularly the sculpture at the Olympic Sculpture Park, and also the sculpture I wish were at the Olympic Sculpture Park, which opens Jan 20 and 21.

A few months ago, in preparation for writing about the park, I wanted to see whether I could grab the unlikeliest of interviews: Louise Bourgeois, the eccentric French-cum-New York artist, born in 1911, whose every conversation sounds the way a scene from a surrealist film looks. She rarely talks to the press. The last time I remember reading anything memorable and remotely comprehensive about the artist queen was in 2002, when the New Yorker profiled her (“Bourgeois is not a dear old lady,” Joan Acocella noted).

Surprise No. 1: Google “Louise Bourgeois New York” and you will turn up a phone number and an address.

Surprise No. 2: When I called that number, she answered.

Stunned, I told her who I was and what I was hoping to talk to her about: the fountain going into the park with two realistic male nudes—father and son, one always covered in a bell jar of water while the other is exposed.

“OK,” she said in her accent. “Come over Sunday.”

Sundays she holds her infamous salons. Could I get there by Sunday? It was Thursday at 4.

And then a man who I just know holds his lips tightly together when he isn’t speaking took the phone from Louise. He said she wasn’t talking to the press. Then he hung up.

Oh, Louise. What could have been. Maybe I’ll call back sometime.

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RSS icon Comments

1

wow. wow. if i were you, i would just show up. beat up the mean man, and talk with one of the coolest artists ever.

Posted by konstantconsumer | January 3, 2007 12:33 PM
2

If I were Mean Man, I'd unlist Louise's phone number from Google and the like before getting all NYC-snooty.

Posted by h0h0h0 | January 3, 2007 12:38 PM
3

Please tell me he's her snooty butler.

Posted by keshmeshi | January 3, 2007 1:03 PM
4

YOU HAVE TO GO TO NEW YORK. PERIOD.

Posted by terry miller | January 3, 2007 2:25 PM
5

OH. MY. GOD. If you don't fly there and at least stand outside shouting up to her window you will never forgive yourself. GO.

Posted by Grant Cogswell | January 3, 2007 3:49 PM
6

What they said. Go to one of these "cheep airplane tickets" pages, only thought of this one because someone got tickets to Amsterdam for $200 there
http://www.orbitz.com/
Don't over-think it. You should really, seriously jump on a plane and make an adventure happen. If tight-lipped phone man answers the door in your scenario, bring a few gifts along. Who can turn away someone with wrapped presents? Say you're "Jen from Seattle" on the intercom. Go.

Posted by Wesley | January 4, 2007 2:23 AM
7

Just go... to artists she has been famously accessible.


Posted by DoubleJ | January 4, 2007 12:10 PM
8

Jen - she has the salons every sunday, so go when you can. Just say you talked on the phone and she invited you (she won't remember). I went the same way - looked her up in the phone book and called. I've gone 3 times; it's very uneven. First time was great - Rob Storr critiqued my work for almost an hour - the second two times were not so great. But take a chance and go. She's not going to be around forever. ps she likes chocolates

Posted by oriane | January 5, 2007 9:20 AM

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