Too much love 2010

Louise Bourgeois made this drawing, Too Much Love, with ink and watercolor on paper. The color is so rich and dark, almost like clotted blood. But then there’s this looseness to the way the ink bleeds into the paper, which gives it a kind of ephemeral, dreamy quality. I find myself focusing on the way the figure is outlined in a thin blue line. It's like she's trying to contain the form, but the ink keeps escaping, pushing beyond the boundaries. The wetness of the medium is what makes this drawing so evocative; you can imagine Bourgeois letting the ink flow and guide her hand, almost as if she’s uncovering something rather than constructing it. It makes me think of Philip Guston and his late-in-life turn to figuration, especially the raw, vulnerable way he approached his subjects. This piece feels like a visual poem about the push and pull of desire and constraint.