Fantastic
Reality, Louise Bourgeois and a Story
of Modern Art
by Mignon
Nixon
The MIT Press, London, England, 2005
312 pp. illus. Trade, $40.00
ISBN: 0-262-14089-6.
Reviewed by Rob Harle (Australia)
harle@dodo.com.au
Fantastic Reality is the detailed
story of Louise Bourgeois' fascinating
career and life. Mignon Nixon has done
an excellent job of producing, not only
a detailed, exceptionally well researched
scholarly work, but at the same time,
a personable story that is a fairly easy
read. Bourgeois' story is intimately linked
with many other artists, and as the title
suggests, with modern art. This work discusses
both Bourgeois' relationship to modern
art and with some of its more famous characters,
such as Duchamp, Miró and Giacometti.
The four main factors in Bourgeois' lifemotherhood,
psychoanalysis, Surrealism and Feminism
are woven together in an effort to understand
this enigmatic artist. Whilst Nixon's
analysis goes a long way in helping us
in this understanding, we are still left
with a slight knowing smile, which acknowledges
Bourgeois' remarkable talent for playing
games.
Like the surrealists who took game playing
seriously, so too does Bourgeois. She
does this convincingly because she is
well grounded in ordinary reality.
Apart from being a sculptor
dealing with messy, earthy materials,
she has raised three sons and early in
her career battled against the patriarchal
status quo including rejection by certain
surrealists, especially André Breton.
This together with her innate understanding
of psychoanalytical theory allows her
to create her own fantastic reality.
"It is here in this shadow world of psychoanalysis
that Bourgeois's work is theoretically
founded" (p. 268).
The book is written primarily from a psychoanalytical
perspective generally and discusses Freudian
and Kleinian theory specifically. Even
if the reader has problems with psychoanalysis
as a "way of knowing" the world, as I
do, Fantastic Reality will still
prove to be a satisfying read. Not only
because of its detailed historical account
but because Nixon has written the book
with Bourgeois not only about
her. I think this is a very important
point to consider
as far too many books are written about
artists, especially with a psychoanalytical
take, without the author having ever met
or interviewed the artist.
Fantastic Reality has numerous
illustrations, including personal photographs
of Bourgeois herself, together with her
drawings and sculptures. All are in black
& white. There are six chapters, together
with an Epilogue and good Index.
Bourgeois' career was clearly influenced
by the resistance to women's art, which
she experienced in her formative artistic
years. This, combined with her surrealist
associations, developed a driving force
in both her life and art which could be
termed "psychoanalytical feminism", ".
. . Bourgeois's art was self-consciously
and intimately linked with the history
of psychoanalysis" (p. 50). It is well
known that the early evolution of the
surrealist movement was coterminous with
the development of Freudian psychoanalysis.
"Through burlesque and parody she has
embodied feminist resistance to phallocentrism,
to the objectification of the female body
as sex object, to conventional gender
roles, and to the patriarchal arrangements
of the avant-garde" (p. 82).
Whilst Bourgeois' feminism embraces many
of the traditional feminist ideals, she
is a somewhat idiosyncratic feminist.
Rather than engaging in academic- style
discourse, she plays and plays hard. Much
of her work, especially sculpture, takes
patriarchal and phallocentric symbols
and turns them back on themselves in an
attempt to disempower them. One such work
Fillette, a sculpture of male genitalia
in latex over plaster, is presented numerous
times in photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe.
Bourgeois poses with the sculpture under
her arm, and in her arms as a baby. I
found the psychoanalytical interpretation
of this work and performance (pp. 71-82)
in Chapter 2What's So Funny
About Fetishism? to push the interpretation
to the point of incredulity. Also the
work lacks subtlety and is really a bit
of a yawn! This is not a criticism of
the book per se, more of Bourgeois
art and psychoanalysis itself.
This is a fascinating book about a fascinating
artist that I would recommend to both
general and specialist readers; just remember
though that the book is as much about
psychoanalysis as it is about Louise Bourgeois
and Modern Art.