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Wall-scaling spider among the major works by modern artist in exhibition

The Louise Bourgeois exhibition at Dorset Museum in Dorchester <i>(Image: BNPS)</i>
The Louise Bourgeois exhibition at Dorset Museum in Dorchester (Image: BNPS)

A SCULPTURE of a wall-climbing spider is among the major works of a French-American artist on show at a museum in Dorchester.

Dorset Museum will display the major works of artist Louise Bourgeois for the first time in Dorset.

Acclaimed French-American artist Bourgeois (1911-2010) is widely recognised as one of the most important figures of modern and contemporary art.

The exhibition includes highlights from the Artist Rooms national collection jointly owned by Tate and National Galleries of Scotland, such as the cage-like installation Cell XIV (Portrait) 2000.

The artist’s iconic Spider I 1995, which will climb the museum’s entrance hall walls, is one of several important loans from The Easton Foundation, featured alongside further key loans from the Artist Rooms Foundation and Tate.

The exhibition brings together a collection of her inventive and expressive work, which encompassed painting, sculpture, installation, textiles, and printmaking.

Often biographical, Bourgeois’s work explores themes including childhood, family, motherhood, gender, and identity.

Dorset Echo: Louise Bourgeois exhibition at Dorset Museum Picture: BNPS
Dorset Echo: Louise Bourgeois exhibition at Dorset Museum Picture: BNPS

Louise Bourgeois exhibition at Dorset Museum Picture: BNPS (Image: BNPS)

Elizabeth Selby, interim director of Dorset Museum, said: "We are excited to have this unique exhibition presented for the first time in Dorset, displaying works by one of the most celebrated modern artists of the 20th century.

"Thanks to this partnership with ARTIST ROOMS, Louise Bourgeois’s artworks from the collections of Tate and National Galleries of Scotland can be enjoyed by our visitors in Dorset and further afield."

Born in Paris in 1911, Bourgeois settled in New York in 1938, where she remained for the rest of her life, continuing to make art until her death at the age of 98.

In a career that spanned most of the avant-garde artistic movements of the 20th century, Bourgeois stayed true to her unique vision. Her endlessly inventive work, inspired by her memories and experiences, spanned monumental installations, figurative sculptures, fabric collages, and drawings.

She is perhaps best known for the large-scale spider sculptures that she produced in the last decades of her life, including one she created for the opening of Tate Modern in 2000.

ARTIST ROOMS: Louise Bourgeois is at Dorset Museum in Dorchester until June 25 June. The exhibition is free with an entrance ticket to the museum.

Tickets are £14 for adults for day entry or £35 for an annual pass.  See the website dorsetmuseum.org for more information.