Untitled 

Louise Bourgeois made this untitled work on paper with red ink. This piece, with its concentric lines culminating in a floral centre, has strong links to her earlier architectural drawings. Bourgeois was born in France in 1911, but she spent most of her career in the United States. From the 1940s onwards, New York became the most important centre for art, so it’s hardly surprising that Bourgeois moved there in 1938. However, in New York she found that abstract expressionism was the order of the day, and this was a male dominated movement, and it was very difficult for women artists to get recognition at that time. Bourgeois was interested in psychoanalysis and feminism, and she explored feelings and personal experience in her work. As a historian, what I find most rewarding about studying art is the way that we can understand it better by looking at the social context in which it was made, and by consulting sources such as letters, diaries and exhibition reviews.