Photo: Arthur Mones. ‘Louise Bourgeois, 1988.’ Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the artist, 1997.162.11. © Estate of Arthur Mones.
Screening Room: 'Louise Bourgeois: The Rage to Understand' by Marie-Ève de Grave celebrating "In The Studio: Louise Bourgeois" from Hauser & Wirth Publishers
On the occasion of the recent release of "In The Studio: Louise Bourgeois," from Hauser & Wirth Publishers, please join us for a screening of Marie-Ève de Grave’s documentary, 'Louise Bourgeois: The Rage to Understand' in our amphitheater at Hauser & Wirth 18th Street.
Counted among the most significant figures of contemporary art history, Louise Bourgeois produced a complex body of work that explored the full range of human experience. Working in several mediums (including sculpture, painting, printmaking, drawing, and performance), she created a visual world noted for its singularity and invention. In this latest installment of the "In the Studio" series, curator Justin Paton charts the trajectory of Bourgeois’s life and seventy-year career, using the places and processes of her artistic practice to illuminate the complex psychological mechanisms behind her unique vocabulary of forms, restless material experimentation, and recurring motifs. Alongside Paton’s comprehensive account of Bourgeois’s work, a selection of Bourgeois’s writings—including some published for the very first time—reveal the myriad ways her motivations and emotions played out in the studio. Accessibly written and richly illustrated, "In the Studio: Louise Bourgeois" will delight both those familiar with and curious about Bourgeois’s groundbreaking work.
'The Rage to Understand,' from director Marie-Ève de Grave, recounts a life devoted to creation, through the artist’s own words and voice. Excerpts from Bourgeois’s correspondence and previously unpublished writings from her journals are interwoven throughout the film, sketching the portrait of a remarkable artist, whose personal expression resonates in profoundly universal ways.
LOUISE BOURGEOIS: THE RAGE TO UNDERSTAND
Directed by Marie-Ève de Grave
52 min
Copies of "In The Studio: Louise Bourgeois" will be available for purchase before and after the screening.
This event is free; however, reservations are required.
About Louise Bourgeois
Born in France in 1911 and working in America from 1938 until her death in 2010, Louise Bourgeois is recognized as one of the most important and influential artists of our time. For over seven decades, Bourgeois’s creative process was fueled by an introspective reality, often rooted in cathartic re-visitations of early childhood trauma and frank examinations of female sexuality. Articulated by recurrent motifs (including body parts, houses and spiders), personal symbolism and psychological release, the conceptual and stylistic complexity of Bourgeois’s oeuvre—employing a variety of genres, media and materials—plays upon the powers of association, memory, fantasy, and fear.
About Marie-Ève De Grave
After studying architecture and scenography, Marie-Ève De Grave graduated from INSAS (Image Department) in 1993. Based in France since 1994, she has worked as a screenwriter and directed several short films. 'Belle de nuit' (2016) was her first documentary. She went on to direct 'Dora Maar, entre ombre et lumière' (2019), 'Code Haneke' (2021) and 'Louise Bourgeois, la sculpture et la colère' (2025).
