
By Armando Aureliano Sauzullo. Cover image by Margie Mitchem for I’M Firenze Digest, inspired by Spider Couple.
Louise Bourgeois’ latest exhibition, Do Not Abandon Me, masterfully curated by Philip Larratt-Smith and Sergio Risaliti, is open to the public until October 20 at the Museo Novecento in Florence and walking through it feels like stepping into the artist’s mind, where memories and fears intertwine. The French-American artist, who passed away in New York in 2010 at the age of 98, created a body of work that profoundly explores themes of trauma and maternal bonds.
Louise Bourgeois: a personal diary of Trauma and Healing
Each room feels like a deeply personal memory, a diary page in which trauma is both the antagonist and the muse. The works are not just creations; they are manifestations of Bourgeois’ personal history, her complicated relationship with her mother, and the intricate psychological landscape of being a daughter.
Upon entering, we are greeted by the monumental presence of Bourgeois’ iron Spider Couple (2003), which immediately immerses us in the artist’s recurring theme. These towering figures, looming like silent guardians, are at once nurturing and terrifying, protective yet ensnaring. They symbolise not only the maternal figure watching over her child’s journey but also the paradoxical nature of maternal instinct: that of a protector who, consciously or unconsciously, may stifle.
Unravelling Louise Bourgeois’s Maternal bond: themes of Love and Pain
In this tension, Bourgeois sets the stage for the emotional landscape she explores throughout her life. As we delve further into the exhibition, the delicate yet gut-wrenching interplay of control and tenderness seeps deep into the viewer’s soul. Bourgeois often described her work as a form of therapy, and this is especially evident in her guache watercolours and sewn fabric sculptures. These works have an almost pedagogical quality, with the softness of the materials and the pastel colours evoking a sense of childlike playfulness as if the objects had come from a toy chest. Yet, they are unsettling; they’re dreamlike but bordering on nightmarish.
It’s as if we are witnessing a child’s attempt to make sense of a world where love is inseparable from pain and where nurturing comes with a heavy dose of taxing responsibility and, at times, guilt. Even in the more disturbing imagery, where gore and suffering are depicted like tally marks on a mother’s body, there is a dichotomous sense of softness, wonder and peace. It’s as if the child within Bourgeois was always trying to comprehend and piece together the fragments of a complicated and painful reality.
The Emotional Landscape: Bourgeois’ Reflection on Childhood and Identity
There is something deeply moving about the way Bourgeois visualises birth and the mother-child bond. The figures are often disproportionate, with the fetus exaggerated in size, emphasising the weight and significance of the child, as well as its individuality, while also showing its inescapable connection to the mother through an exterior umbilical cord.
I looks like Bourgeois is prompting us to consider what it means to be tied to another person, to live a life that is closely connected to someone else’s. The trauma of giving birth and being born is not just a one-time event but an ongoing state of existence: the act of being born and giving life, of being nourished and consumed by the process.
The mother’s body becomes a vessel, sacrificed and reshaped in service to the life within her. These images seem to hover between love and anguish, between the beauty of creation and the agony of sacrifice. The mother’s body is often in disarray, distorted in ways that make the act of nurturing feel both intimate and grotesque.
Resilience and Transformation: the Cathartic Power of Louise Bourgeois’ Work
The narrative of Louise Bourgeois’ work takes us through this raw, emotional terrain with an almost childlike honesty. The pastels, soft sculptures, and tender materials remind us of childhood, but the themes are anything but innocent. In each piece, there is a duality—the sweetness of the surface belies the deeper wounds underneath. Bourgeois uses this contrast to invite us into her world, a world where the child never stops seeking understanding and where the mother’s love is as much a source of comfort as it is of conflict.
In her later works, particularly in pieces like “Do Not Abandon Me”, we witness the development of this inner dialogue. The relationship between mother and father becomes tense, imbued with betrayal and longing. The figures no longer float in a childlike vacuum; they are now burdened by the complexities of adulthood. The mother is no longer just nurturing; she is enduring.
Bourgeois seems to suggest that motherhood is not just a role for the child but also the father, society, and oneself. It is a role that comes with a lot of expectations, and through her art, she reveals the emotional toll of fulfilling those expectations.
Why Louise Bourgeois’s exhibit is a universal reflection on human experience
Yet, despite the pain that runs through her work, there is also a profound sense of resilience. Bourgeois does not dwell on her trauma; she transforms it. She gives shape to the unspoken, unseen forces that influence our lives, and in doing so, she offers a kind of catharsis.
Her work invites us to face our own buried memories and fears and to emerge from that confrontation with a better understanding of ourselves, serving the wounded child within our subconscious that we all care for every day.
Ultimately, Bourgeois’ exhibition is not just a reflection on her life, her mother, or even the complexities of the maternal bond. It is a meditation on the human experience itself, on what it means to be born, to be nurtured, and to carry the weight of those who came before us. Louise Bourgeois’ art serves as a poignant reminder of the shared human experience. It portrays a solemn, bittersweet narrative of wounded children navigating sorrow who may one day evolve into imperfect mothers.
Through her work, we come to understand empathy and compassion. We are all influenced by the relationships that shape us, and each day presents an opportunity to redefine ourselves, transform pain into beauty, and learn how to love from the things that hurt us.