Louise Bourgeois was a French-American artist, widely regarded as one of the most important sculptors and installation artists of the 20th century.

Born in Paris on Christmas Day 1911, she grew up in a family of five. Louise spent a large part of her teens caring for her sick mother, until her mother’s death when Louise was just 20 years old.

This radical event inspired her to abandon studying mathematics, turning to art instead. After opening her own gallery, she met her future husband, American art historian Robert Goldwater, before moving to New York together in 1938, where they raised three sons.

Even though primarily known for her sculptures and installations, Louise also worked with painting, drawing, printmaking, and textiles, moving fluidly between the abstract, the ambiguous, and the concrete. Much of her work is deeply personal, rooted in her own experiences and childhood memories. She constantly explored powerful themes such as childhood, femininity, sexuality, family, human relations and identity.

She was the first woman to get a solo show at MoMA in 1982, has represented USA at the Venezia Biennale twice, and she inspired artists and audiences the world over. Even though Bourgeois had her breakthgouh in her seventies, she had a relentless creativity all the way to her death – defining her own unique “initary of life” by using personal experiences, life stories and raw materials throughout her prolific career. Louise Bourgeois passed away in New York on 31 May 2010, aged 98.