Louise Bourgeois: Conscious and Unconscious
20 January, 2012 – 1 June, 2012
Location: QMA Gallery, Katara
A contemporary art exhibition one of the first of its kind in the region celebrating one of the most impressive artists of our time.

Monday to Thursday   9:00AM – 8:00PM
Friday    3:00PM – 9:00PM
Saturday    9:00AM – 8:00PM
Sunday    Closed

The French-American artist Louise Bourgeois (1911 – 2010) lived almost an entire century and had the rare achievement of bridging the modern and the postmodern eras in her life and art. Conscious and Unconscious is the first in-depth survey of the work of this artist not merely in Qatar but in the Middle East. In a body of work dominated by dualities and polarities – active and passive, male and female, figurative and abstract, geometric and organic, mother and father, murder and suicide – the dynamic between conscious and unconscious is perhaps the most significant. For Bourgeois, the act of making sculpture is nothing other than finding sculptural equivalents for psychological states – of giving conscious form to her unconscious impulses, wishes, and fears. The thirty-two works in the exhibition, consisting of sculptures, installation works, gouaches, and fabric pieces, and dating from 1947 to 2009, have all been selected with a view to illuminating this underlying dynamic.

Accompanying Conscious and Unconscious is a major catalog publication featuring a foreword by Sheikha Mayassa, the title essay by the curator Philip Larratt-Smith, and a text by Sophia Al-Maria, as well as a full-colour plate section of the works in the checklist and an illustrated chronology of the artist’s life and work.

Philip Larratt-Smith is a writer and curator based in New York and London. He is curator of the international programme at Malba – Fundación Costantini in Buenos Aires.

Gallery Guided Tours
Monday – Thursday     
9:30AM
11:00AM
Join a knowledgeable Gallery Guide for a tour of the exhibition. Guides will help visitors understand the meaning of the exhibition through interactive conversations.

School – Group Guided Tours
Age Groups: Primary – Secondary School
20 students maximum
Please call us on +974 44081255 or +974 44028045, or email qmagallery@qma.org.qa to reserve an available time.  
Gallery guides will help students make relevant connections between their lives and the art of Louise Bourgeois through inquiry and discussion. Tours may be delivered in Arabic and English.  

School – Group Art Workshops
Tuesdays and Wednesdays      
9:00am – 11:00am
Age Groups: Primary – Secondary School
20 students maximum
Please call us on +974 44081255 or +974 44028045, or email qmagallery@qma.org.qa to reserve an available time.  
Bring your school group and work in a creative art session, while looking and working on themes from the Louise Bourgeois exhibition. It is an opportunity to be as artistic and creative as you can!

Family – Drop-in Sessions
Thursdays and Fridays
4:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Age Groups: Children and Adults are all welcome!
No booking required.
Join our free creative family workshop, look at the amazing works on display by Louise Bourgeois, and make your personal art work with the assistance of our community art leaders.
 
Adults – Group Art Workshops
Four Sessions: February 5-8
9:00AM – 12:00PM
Age Groups: Adult
Booking is required. Please email deanned@qma.org.qa to reserve a position.
A four-part workshop, this workshop will examine the materials used by Louise Bourgeois—gouache on paper, threads on fabric, hammer on metal, and patinas on surfaces—then let participants explore the same materials to create a personal piece. Please note: This workshop will meet at the Museum of Islamic Art in the Education Center’s M Level Workshop.

Download and print a full schedule of education activities.