March 31 – May 12, 2001
Selections from Louis Bourgeois' salon
Louise Bourgeois has held a salon in her Chelsea home each week for close to thirty years. Young artists, filmmakers, writers, poets and musicians gather to share their work with one another at these sessions, and to engage in a wider debate about the arts.
Curated by Barbara Hunt and Jenelle Porter
Opening Reception
Saturday, March 31, 6 - 8pm
For this exhibition, Artists Space has selected a number of artists from recent salons. The exhibition will be accompanied by video footage of the Sunday discussions, filmed by Pouran Esrafily, and an exhibition brochure with an essay by Amei Wallach. The work included in Salon covers all media and many themes. The artists are united by the simple fact that they have recently attended the Sunday salon, their attendance stemming as much from a desire to have an audience with the icon that is "Louise," as from a desire to have an internationally renowned artist critique their work. Louise's salon is in itself an opportunity for disparate artists to meet each other and open up their work for critical dialogue, a chance (for those courageous enough) to engage with strangers in artistic debate that is highly personal, bearing in mind that an arena for debate is something sadly lacking in the art world after graduation.
This exhibition draws attention to a unique phenomenon, one that embodies Vasari's "myth of an artist" - the phenomenon of Ms. Bourgeois herself.