Topiary. Louise Bourgeois

Bourgeois’ son Jean-Louis, an architect and architectural historian, introduced me to her art when I was working with a publisher on a book with him nearly 30 years ago. Jean-Louis Bourgeois is one of the world’s foremost experts on adobe architecture in Africa, especially in Mali. Although he and I never discussed it, the rounded and organic mud forms of those amazing buildings he is drawn to remind me of the sculptural forms used by his mother.

Louise Bourgeois created some amazing and frightening pieces. They are beautiful and well crafted, but often have an edge of danger or anger behind them. She often explored the role of gender. Her female forms are sometimes victims, sometimes manipulators. They are never boring. Her work will delight and haunt generations to come.

Read the New York Times article and obituary.

“Art is truth because it is eternal.” – Louise Bourgeois

Trevor Southey. Self Portrait, Oil on Canvas

Now living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area, Southey emigrated from Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) as a young man. He studied art in England and South Africa. A Mormon, he then came to the United States and obtained two degrees from Brigham Young University, where he taught for a number of years. The volume Trevor Southey: Reconciliation was published several years ago. It is both an insightful memoir and a stunning collection of his work with his commentary. I highly recommend it. His major recent work is a life-size bronze of St. Francis of Assisi at the Cathedral of Hope in Dallas. Also, there is a major retrospective of his work at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts from October 21 through February 11. (Details here.)

This video, narrated by Southey, gives a glimpse of his work and his humanity.