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« FILLETTE » [latex over plaster; dimensions: 23 1/2 x 11 x 7 1/2″ (59.7 x 28 x 19.1 cm), gift of the artist in memory of Alfred H. Barr, Jr.]: his phallic sculpture means ‘little girl’, an ironic disjunction of word and object. Bourgeois has talked about this work in relation to her experiences as a wife, and a mother to three boys, which led her to see masculinity as far more vulnerable than she had imagined. ‘From a sexual point of view I consider the masculine attributes to be extremely delicate’, she explained. ‘They’re objects that the woman, myself, must protect.’The photographer Robert Mapplethorpe famously portrayed Bourgeois with a version of this work tucked playfully under her arm. By layering latex over plaster, Bourgeois achieved a fleshy, tactile texture in this hanging sculpture. While it most obviously represents a phallus, the work can also be seen as a female torso, as the title suggests; in this reading, the two round forms are the tops of two legs, attaching to their hip joints. This eliding of genders creates ambiguity, as do the work’s dual qualities of erect potency and fragile vulnerability. From a sexual point of view, » Bourgeois said, « I consider the masculine attributes to be very delicate. »
- En 1999, Louise Bourgeois reçoit le Lion d’or de la Biennale de Venise pour l’ensemble de son œuvre.
- Le 21 septembre 2008, Carla Bruni, Jack Lang et Nicolas Sarkozy , lui remettent la Légion d’Honneur à New York.
- En 2009, elle est honorée par le National Women’s Hall of Fame, pour avoir marqué l’histoire des États-Unis.
- En 2009, elle est honorée à New York par le Collège de ‘Pataphysique de l’Ordre de la Grande Gidouille (« Commandeur exquis »… comme Pablo Picasso soixante ans avant)
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- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYiNEnfKNpE . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxSr-vPkv5M]