From Library Journal
Despite its reasonable cost, beautiful appearance, and thesis that "art must be understood in relationship to the present time of viewing," Louise Bourgeois' Spider is disappointing. In an attempt to elucidate Bourgeois's (1911-) 1997 masterpiece, "The Spider," this highly technical book sets methodological interpretive barriers between the viewer and the sculpture. As a result, this volume may be of interest to specialized libraries but is not suitable for general collections serving readers wishing to acquaint themselves with the wonders of Bourgeois's art. Readers should instead see the article Bal (literature, Univ. of Amsterdam and Cornell Univ.) contributed to Louise Bourgeois: Memory and Architecture (LJ 3/1/01). Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Book Description
The sculptor Louise Bourgeois is best known for her monumental abstract sculptures, one of the most striking of which is the installation Spider (1997). Too vast in scale to be viewed all at once, this elusive structure resists simple narration. It fits both no genre and all of them--architecture, sculpture, installation. Its contents and associations evoke social issues without being reducible to any one of them. Here, literary critic and theorist Mieke Bal presents the work as a theoretical object, one that can teach us how to think, speak, and write about art.

Known for her commentary on the issue of temporality in art, Bal argues that art must be understood in relationship to the present time of viewing as opposed to the less-immediate contexts of what has preceded the viewing, such as the historical past of influences and art movements, biography and interpretation. In ten short chapters, or "takes," Bal demonstrates that the closer the engagement with the work of art, the more adequate the result of the analysis. She also confronts issues of biography and autobiography--key themes in Bourgeois's work--and evaluates the consequences of "ahistorical" experiences for art criticism, drawing on diverse sources such as Bernini and Benjamin, Homer and Eisenstein.

This short, beautiful book offers both a theoretical model for analyzing art "out of context" and a meditation on a key work by one of the most engaging artists of our era.




From the Inside Flap
The sculptor Louise Bourgeois is best known for her monumental abstract sculptures, one of the most striking of which is the installation Spider (1997). Too vast in scale to be viewed all at once, this elusive structure resists simple narration. It fits both no genre and all of them--architecture, sculpture, installation. Its contents and associations evoke social issues without being reducible to any one of them. Here, literary critic and theorist Mieke Bal presents the work as a theoretical object, one that can teach us how to think, speak, and write about art.

Known for her commentary on the issue of temporality in art, Bal argues that art must be understood in relationship to the present time of viewing as opposed to the less-immediate contexts of what has preceded the viewing, such as the historical past of influences and art movements, biography and interpretation. In ten short chapters, or "takes," Bal demonstrates that the closer the engagement with the work of art, the more adequate the result of the analysis. She also confronts issues of biography and autobiography--key themes in Bourgeois's work--and evaluates the consequences of "ahistorical" experiences for art criticism, drawing on diverse sources such as Bernini and Benjamin, Homer and Eisenstein.

This short, beautiful book offers both a theoretical model for analyzing art "out of context" and a meditation on a key work by one of the most engaging artists of our era.




About the Author
Mieke Bal is co-founder of the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis at the University of Amsterdam and A. D. White Professor-at-large at Cornell University. Her books include Double Exposures: The Subject of Cultural Analysis and Quoting Caravaggio: Contemporary Art, Preposterous History, the latter published by the University of Chicago Press.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"The sculptor Louise Bourgeois is best known for her monumental abstract sculptures, one of the most striking of which is the installation Spider (1997). Too vast in scale to be viewed all at once, this elusive structure resists simple narration. It fits no genre and all of them - architecture, sculpture, installation. Its contents and associations evoke social issues without being reducible to any one of them. Here, literary critic and theorist Mieke Bal presents the work as a theoretical object, one that can teach us how to think, speak, and write about art." "Bal argues that art must be understood in relation to the present time of viewing as opposed to the less-immediate contexts of what has preceded the viewing, such as the historical past of influences and art movements, biography, and interpretation. In ten short chapters, or "takes," Bal demonstrates that the closer the engagement with the work of art, the more adequate the result of the analysis. She also confronts issues of biography and autobiography - key themes in Bourgeois' work - and evaluates the consequences of "ahistorical" experiences for art criticism, drawing on diverse sources such as Bernini, Benjamin, and Eisenstein." "This book offers both a theoretical model for analyzing art "out of context" and a meditation on a key work by one of the most engaging artists of our era."--BOOK JACKET.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal