Bourgeois Revival

Few artists could claim to be at their professional peak at the age of 93, but Louise Bourgeois is having a crack at it. “Bourgeois’ reputation is growing steadily, boosted by the fact that she regularly shows work alongside artists half her age. French-born, but now living in Manhattan, she represented the US in the Venice Biennale in 1993, and completed the inaugural commission for Tate Modern’s vast turbine hall in 2000.” Her work is unquestionably contemporary, which may account for some of her continued success, but more than merely seeming fresh, it comes across as intensely autobiographical, a trick which few visual artists have mastered without seeming trite.