Louise Bourgeois: Late Works

Albert Tucker</a> (1917–1999) developed a repertoire of dark and disturbing imagery to convey his apprehension and mistrust of the modern era. He was inspired by the history of art and particularly by the revival of grotesque motifs in European culture, as progressive artists and writers looked for ways to convey their responses to rapid modernisation and societal upheaval, and to the horrors of total and mechanised war. Bolstered by the startling novelty of modern art movements, the grotesque provided a forceful and shocking means to communicate the turmoil of the times.</p><p>The human body, distorted, exaggerated and mutilated, provided Tucker with a focus for his unsettling images. His idiosyncratic visual language linked his paintings across time and a range of subjects, and included a red crescent mouth, disfigured nose, stigmatic wounds, and truncated, protoplasmic torsos. This interest in the corporeal was applied to the mythological anti-heroes of his later works, and also became his entry point to Australian landscape painting in the 1950s. His depiction of open wounds scarring the ancient desert channelled feelings of despair and anxiety, and generated a uniquely antipodean adaptation of the grotesque that has made his work highly distinctive and identifiable today.</p><p><br></p>" />

Richard Lewer</a>’s paintings, drawings and moving image works present stories about himself and observations of others that confront human frailties and uncomfortable truths.</p><p>Drawn from a body of work the artist describes as ‘disaster narratives’, consisting of a painted inventory of personal mishaps, embarrassments and social calamities, the pictures in this exhibition tell of two awkward encounters: one that took place while Lewer was a resident artist in Aotearoa/New Zealand at McCahon House, and the other when he participated in the International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York city.</p><p>With his wry ambiguous humour Lewer addresses oddly memorable interactions with visiting curators in each location, two of whom he is closely acquainted with and the other a prospective international connection. Naturally everything goes wrong and the visits are undercut by wild assumptions, an unwelcome summoning of spirits, and a curator with an extreme aversion to the cold.</p><p>While the paintings gently allude to the intimacies, dynamics and power plays of the art world, and by extension to society more broadly, they also consider the practice of art itself as a form of calling forth and reaching out across memory and time. Taking his own experiences as points of departure, the images and accompanying stories prompt us to think about our own moments of social bewilderment, discord and misunderstanding.</p><p>Further, Lewer’s often mundane and unremarkable incidents are imbued with a sense of the spiritual, touching upon events that leave traces. His evocative vignettes reveal life as an accumulating succession of unpredictable encounters that leave indelible stains, bruises, and sometimes heartache.</p><p><br></p>" />

Gio Ponti</a> and <a target="_blank" href=https://www.mutualart.com/Exhibition/Louise-Bourgeois--Late-Works-/"/Artist/Carlo-Mollino/300FECA00922FE9B">Carlo Mollino</a>, through the ingenious and stylish creations of <a target="_blank" href=https://www.mutualart.com/Exhibition/Louise-Bourgeois--Late-Works-/"/Artist/Gae-Aulenti/01112830826028B5">Gae Aulenti</a>, Joe Colombo, and the Castiglioni brothers, to the quirky and provocative Radical Design movement, Memphis Milano, prominent design figures <a target="_blank" href=https://www.mutualart.com/Exhibition/Louise-Bourgeois--Late-Works-/"/Artist/Ettore-Sottsass/B5F7F2C242B310D8">Ettore Sottsass</a>, <a target="_blank" href=https://www.mutualart.com/Exhibition/Louise-Bourgeois--Late-Works-/"/Artist/Nanda-Vigo/4EAD9B43274223F1">Nanda Vigo</a>, <a target="_blank" href=https://www.mutualart.com/Exhibition/Louise-Bourgeois--Late-Works-/"/Artist/Gaetano-Pesce/E9C27BBA7A3DF31A">Gaetano Pesce</a>, and more.</p><p><br></p>" />