Image

A side view of the same sculpture but against a white background.
Against a dark background, a white bowl, containing several smaller orbs, balances on top of a square platform with two channeled wedges, flanked by two larger white round objects.
Another view of the sculpture against a dark background.
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Louise Bourgeois

Still Life
Now On View

Description

Maker

Louise Bourgeois (American, 1911-2010

Title

Still Life

Year

1963

Medium

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

Materials

plaster, paint, wood

Dimensions

29.8 x 50.2 x 48.3 cm (11 3/4 x 19 3/4 x 19 inches)

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Museum Works of Art Fund

Object Number

66.163

Type

Projects & Publications

Publications

Articles

Still Life
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Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Art and Design from 1900 to Now
Jun 04, 2022 – Sep 01, 2026

Label copy

The relation of one person to his surroundings is a continuing pre-occupation. ...This is the soil from which all my work grows.

-Louise Bourgeois

This composition of rounded forms nestled in a basin and resting atop slablike shapes suggests the bowl of fruit and loaves of bread one might find in a traditional still-life painting. The otherworldly color palette and pared-down shapes here, however, exude the “fantastic reality” that Louise Bourgeois sought to inject into her sculptural experiments. Personal narratives of motherhood, earthiness, sustenance, and nurture coalesce in these simplified contours, suggesting a range of sensory and emotional responses.

-Kate Irvin, curator of costume and textiles

Better Still
Looking at Still Life in the Museum Collection
Feb 06, 2004 – May 02, 2004
The New York School
Aaron Siskind in Context
Nov 07, 2003 – Jan 25, 2004

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Tombstone

Louise Bourgeois (American, 1911-2010
b. Paris)
Still Life, 1963
Wood, plaster, and paint
29.8 x 50.2 x 48.3 cm (11 3/4 x 19 3/4 x 19 inches)
Museum Works of Art Fund 66.163

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