Louise Bourgeois / Blind Man's Buff / 1984

Louise Bourgeois
Blind Man's Buff
1984
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Creator Name: Bourgeois, Louise
Creator Nationality: American
Creator Role: Artist
Creator Dates/Places: 1911
Gender: F
Creator Birth Place: Paris, France
Creator Name-CRT: Louise Bourgeois
Title: Blind Man's Buff
Title Type: Primary
View: Full View
Creation Start Date: 1984
Creation End Date: 1984
Creation Date: 1984
Object Type: Sculpture
Classification Term: Sculpture
Materials and Techniques: white marble on wooden base
Dimensions: Overall: 92.7cm x 88.9cm x 63.5cm
AMICA Contributor: The Cleveland Museum of Art
Owner Location: Cleveland, Ohio, USA
ID Number: 2002.29
Credit Line: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund
Copyright: Art: © Artist or Artist's Estate/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
Rights: www.vaga.org
Provenance: Collection of the artist; Robert Miller Gallery, New York; Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne; acquired from Karsten Greve in 1995 by a private collection (François Pinault); Sold at auction to CMA Christie's, New York on Tuesday, May 14th , 2002.
Style or Period: America, 20th century
Context: Blind Man's Buff synthesizes the complex themes and images that have always informed Louise Bourgeois's art, including myth, metaphor, and the human body. Mischievous humor is another key to her work, as evidenced in the piece's title, a variation on "Blind Man's Bluff." In this child's game, one person is blindfolded and must seek out other players using only sound or touch. Indeed, several of this sculpture's bulbous forms evoke peering eyes with dilated pupils; others, however, disallow sensory perception.A central issue of Blind Man's Buff is what Bourgeois has termed "polarization," or the stress between clear opposites. The form's soft contours contrast with the hard blunt nature of the marble, while the relationship between finished and unfinished surfaces creates a dynamic tension. The work's anthropomorphic shapes are suggestive, yet they are ultimately ambiguous. Bourgeois once stated, "All my work is suggestive; it is not explicit. Explicit things are not interesting because they are too cut and dried and without mystery."
AMICA ID: CMA_.2002.29
AMICA Library Year: 2003
Media Metadata Rights:

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