Untitled 1969

Louise Bourgeois made this untitled piece with pastel on paper in 1949. The approach to mark making is soft but deliberate, like she's feeling her way through a dream. The pastels give a velvety texture to the overlapping forms. Color-wise, it's like a gentle explosion – pinks, yellows, blues all bumping up against each other. Check out the blue blob at the bottom, it's almost like a shadow or a pooling of emotion, anchoring the floating shapes above. I wonder if that’s the key? These colours make you feel a certain way. Bourgeois’ work often deals with memory and the body, so maybe these forms are stand-ins for something more personal. Looking at this, I'm reminded of Hilma af Klint, who also used abstract forms to explore inner worlds. Both artists show how art can be an ongoing conversation, a way of teasing out meaning without ever pinning it down completely.