This is my review about Louise Bourgeous who currently has an exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh. Many of her pieces were  different media including sculpture, etching, lithograph, and drawings.  Most of her works didn’t really appeal to me because, at the minute, sculpture is not an art form I have explored. 

However one sculpture DID catch my eye – “couple 1”.

I choose this because of the way the man and woman were holding each other, it looked very caring, and caught my eye. To look at this it didn’t really stand out but after reading why she did this, the message behind it became clear.

I went to the exhibition with no real expectations having never studied this artists work. As I walked through the exhibition most of it didn’t appeal to me.  I found it vulgar and it didn’t connect with me in any way.  Couple 1 on the other hand stood out to me. Initially it was interesting to me because of the position of the characters. It was the just the position … the woman was cuddling the man. It looked very caring in contrast to the other pieces.  On reading the information panel, however, I was surprised to discover that it may not be as positive as it first looked.  The female figure embraces the man in a gesture that could suggest tenderness, which I first thought or however it could also suggest dependency or domination.

As I continued through the gallery, I found myself appreciating the meaning of the works rather than the work itself. I’m never going to love her work, however now that I have an understanding of the message behind the work, I find myself warming to it a little bit.