Louise Bourgeois: No Exit

November 15, 2015 – May 15, 2016
http://www.nga.gov/

Overview: Louise Bourgeois’s ties to surrealism and existentialism will be explored through 17 works on paper and 4 sculptures. While surrealism informed Bourgeois’s early endeavors, she bristled when critics labeled her a surrealist, preferring instead to identify herself as an existentialist. She often quoted existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre and even named one of her sculptures after Sartre’s play No Exit, an act of homage from which this exhibition takes its title. Works presented will include a rare copy of He Disappeared into Complete Silence (1947), early totem-like sculptures, and M is for Mother (1998), a drawing of an imposing letter M that conveys not only maternal comfort but also maternal control.