Kaliman Gallery, Paddington
until 29 September
Though done some years ago, 96-year-old Louise Bourgeois' exquisite 36-page fabric book Ode à l'Oubli (Ode to memory), 2 pages of which are pictured, is the hottest thing Le Flaneur has seen this week, and is a must-see. It is a complete set (#9 of an edition of 25), with each 'page' separately framed. There are also some excellent etchings and drawings.
The wonder of Louise Bourgeois is that her practice is steadfastly personal, refuses to indulge in facile art-historical or social references, yet sits at the hip pinnacle of late 20th century art, and she is revered as one of the most important 'feminist' artists of her age. This upper-class frenchwoman (who is reputed not to have left her New York apartment for a decade) has for sixty years pursued her intensely idiosyncatic work with single-minded purpose, producing extraordinary sculptural tableaux and objects loaded with potent overlays of meaning – by turns sinister, lyrical or ominous, distilling her simple materials into objects of archetypal power. It is this quality that quietly imbues Ode à l'Oubli. It may be interesting to know that her well-to-do family had a Left Bank tapestry gallery in Paris in early 1920s, and that the young Louise used to make drawings for tapestry restorations, but this knowledge is not required to appreciate the work. Go see.
Vasili Kaliman deserves special praise for bringing this exhibition to Sydney, and for a fine cataloque. At a mere $500K for the set, we predict an Australian insitiution will purchase this work, especially with AGNSW and MCA so flush with new benefactor funds. I wonder who'll get in first?
2 comments:
I so agree - this puts everything else in sydney into perspective.
Ces sont exquistes. Vos mots aussi.
Post a Comment