LOUISE BOURGEOIS 1911—2010
Most of us want to pretend that bad things never happened to us, that we have never been ashamed or mistreated—and, more importantly, that we’ve never done so to others. French artist Louise Bourgeois transformed all the bruising lies we tell ourselves into forms with a telltale heart that beat out for pernicious, principled truth. And she was really funny, with her huge, menacing arachnid forms and snickering phallic anecdotes. Her passing allows us to remember the function of art: sometimes understanding objects is the closest we will ever get toward understanding ourselves.