Louise Bourgeois was born on December 25, 1911 in Paris, France. From a young age, she was surrounded by the art of her parent’s tapestry gallery. During her teenage years, she spent time mending areas of these tapestries which many scholars believe later informed her style of art. She initially studied mathematics but switched to studying art at the Sorbonne in 1932, before graduating in 1935. During her time at school, Bourgeois was instructed by Ferdinand Leger who convinced her to pursue sculpture as opposed to painting. While she did study sculpture, she continued to study painting as well as printmaking. Around this time, Bourgeois opened her own store in Paris specializing in prints. She immigrated to New York City in 1938 where she spent the majority of the remainder of her career and life.
Bourgeois always rejected the label, but she is considered by many scholars to deal with feminism and feminine imagery in her artwork throughout the entirety of her career. Her work also relies heavily on biographical episodes, especially from her troubled childhood and abusive father.
While initialing struggling after first moving to New York, Bourgeois soon found success after several solo gallery exhibitions. Her place as a leading artist was cemented in 1982, when MoMA hosted a retrospective of her work. Bourgeois’s medium of choice fluctuated throughout her career. In her early years, most her of work was focused on printmaking. In the 1960s and 70s, her focused shifted to sculpture, many of which have become iconic of the artist. By the 1980s, Bourgeois was gone back to printmaking. She continued to make prints until her death in 2010 and left a huge oeuvre in both private and public collections around the world.