Beschreibung:

Louise Bourgeois Follow Nature Study stamped with the artist's initials, Sèvres mark and dated ‘LB2004’ on the reverse of the base biscuit porcelain 71.8 x 41.3 x 30.5 cm (28 1/4 x 16 1/4 x 12 in.) Conceived in 1996, cast in 2004, this work is from an edition of 6 plus 2 artist’s proofs and was produced by Manufacture nationale de Sèvres, Paris.
Provenance Private Collection (acquired directly from the artist) Private Collection, Europe Phillips, London, 10 October 2012, lot 11 Acquired at the above sale by the present owner Exhibited Paris, Musée du Louvre, Contrepoint 2: De l’objet d’art à la sculpture – Porcelaines contemporaines , 1 December 2005 - 20 February 2006 (another example exhibited) London, The Wallace Collection, From Jean Arp To Louise Bourgeois Modern Artists At Sèvres , 15 June - 10 September 2006 (another example exhibited) Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou, Louise Bourgeois , 5 March - 2 June 2008, p. 30 (another example illustrated and exhibited) Limoges, Contrario Galerie, Sculpture au Féminin , 3 July - 27 September 2009, p. 57 (another example illustrated and exhibited, incorrectly dated 1998 – 99) London, Phillips, A Very Short History of Contemporary Sculpture , 6 October - 31 October 2014, p. 29 (another example illustrated and exhibited) Literature Louise Bourgeois Porcelain Contemporaines , exh. cat., Connaissance des Arts, Paris, 2005, no. 269, pp. 10 – 11 (another example illustrated) Catalogue Essay Delicate and powerful, Nature Study is a challenging, graceful work exemplifying Louise Bourgeois visionary and critical concern with organic, provocative forms. At the pinnacle of the artist’s creative output, a culmination of forms and ideas spanning a significant period of the twentieth century, Nature Study presents themes that concerned the artist throughout her career. Immensely psychological, addressing issues which had long preoccupied the artist, Nature Study is a self-portrait, embodying Bourgeois’ status as a nurturing mother, combining themes of maternity, family, alienation, identity, gender and mortality. The present work is from an edition of six plus two artist’s proofs in porcelain, one of which one is housed in the Musée du Louvre and another in the esteemed Goetz Collection in Munich. This seminal work is from a celebrated series first conceived in plaster in 1984 and thereafter executed in a variety of dense materials such as marble, bronze, wax and rubber. Simultaneously fragile and fierce in its sculptural volume, Nature Study , executed in Sèvres porcelain, presents twin poles of humanity. The combination of exposed ambisexual genitalia and the delicacy of the materials epitomises the artist’s assertion that ‘we are all vulnerable in some way…and we are all male-female' (Louise Bourgeois in Louise Bourgeois Nature Study: An Essay , exh. cat., Serpentine Gallery, London, 1985, p. 2). Pushing the boundaries and traditional categorisation of gender through the assemblage of forms, Bourgeois invokes the surrealist collage of female Dada protagonist Hannah Höch Transforming her own intensely emotional psychological states into extraordinary physical forms, Bourgeois’ voluptuous sculpture radiates energy, a vehicle of sensation and autonomous flesh. Presenting Bourgeois' anima and persona in parallel, the creature fluctuates between personal psychological and maternal exploration and the universally symbolic language of the body, an object in turmoil. The sphynx-like figure, neither human nor animal, is a fantastical creation, both deeply internal and yet inescapably external. The ‘literalisations of dreams and nightmares, the beautiful and erotic and the horrendous and neurotic' (Joanna Ekman, Louise Bourgeois The Locus of Memory, Works 1982–1993 , New York, 1994, p. 58). Reflecting the wistfulness of her 1947 totemic figures in wood, the Personages , the present work is an evolution of earlier themes, invoking the homesickness and nostalgia evident throughout Bourgeois’ oeuvre. Embracing metaphors of evolution and family, personality and imprisonment, deceit and vengeance, sexual union and gender, Nature Study embodies various states of being, intensely private, yet created for showcase, raising yet more questions on the psychological conflicts with identity. Utilising the skill, and invoking the cultural and historical