Black Flames

Special Exhibition Galleries, second floor (Dorrance Galleries)

Main Building

Black Flames

1947-1949

Louise Bourgeois (American (born France), 1911–2010)

Although recognized as one of the most important artists of the late twentieth century, Louise Bourgeois spent over half of her career in relative obscurity. In 1938 she moved to New York City from France, and in the late 1940s she began making abstract wood sculptures such as Black Flames. These towers of wood, plaster, steel, and cast rubber—at the same time delicate and monolithic—unmoored traditional concepts of sculpture. Many of these early works, which the artist meant to display in groups, reference the human body and allude to the people in Bourgeois’s life.

Special Exhibition Galleries, second floor (Dorrance Galleries)

Object Details

Title:

Black Flames

Date:

1947-1949

Artist:

Louise Bourgeois (American (born France), 1911–2010)

Medium:

Painted wood

Dimensions:

71 x 12 x 12 inches (180.3 x 30.5 x 30.5 cm)

Classification:

Sculpture

Credit Line:

Purchased with funds contributed by Mrs. Edna Beron, Mrs. Adolf Schaap, Mr. and Mrs. Bayard T. Storey, Marion Boulton Stroud; and with gifts (by exchange) of the Samuel S. White 3rd and Vera White Collection and the Sallie Crozier Hilprecht Collection; and gift of Elise Robinson Paumgarten, 1989

Accession Number:

1989-52-1

Geography:

Made in North and Central America

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Special Exhibition Galleries, second floor (Dorrance Galleries)

Main Building

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