Louise Bourgeois - I Have Been to Hell and Back (Red)

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Louise Bourgeois (French-American, 1911-2010)

I Have Been to Hell and Back (Red), 2009

Medium: Embroidery and silkscreen on 100% cotton handkerchief

Dimensions: 29.2 × 30.5 cm (11 1/2 × 12 in)

Edition of 1000: Hand-numbered, and with the artist’s silkscreened monogram

Publisher: Tate, London

Condition: Very good (folded, as issued; housed within the original paper envelope)

This artwork ships worldwide.

About this artwork

Louise Bourgeois - I Have Been to Hell and Back (Red)

Louise Bourgeois’s embroidered and silkscreened handkerchief “I Have Been to Hell and Back (Red)” is a visceral and deeply personal artwork that features the powerful phrase stitched in bold red thread on a white background. The raw, direct language aligns the piece with traditions of text-based art, while the contrasting colors evoke anguish and resilience, reflecting the artist’s lifelong exploration of pain, trauma, and the complexities of the human psyche.

This multiple encapsulates Louise Bourgeois’s ability to transform deeply emotional experiences into visual form, offering a poignant narrative of survival and self-awareness.

Louise Bourgeois, Be Calm (from Recueil des Secrets)

About Louise Bourgeois

Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010) was a French-American artist whose seven-decade career left a lasting impact on modern and contemporary art. Best known for her large-scale sculptures and installations, she also worked in painting, drawing, and printmaking, exploring themes of family, sexuality, memory, and the subconscious. Her practice was deeply autobiographical, confronting fear, anxiety, and the complexities of the human condition.

Her iconic Maman spider sculptures and her Cells installations reveal her focus on motherhood, vulnerability, and isolation. Using materials ranging from bronze and marble to latex and fabric, she balanced fragility with strength, creating environments and forms that invite personal reflection.

In her prints and paintings, Bourgeois continued this introspective approach through symbolic, organic shapes and emotionally charged compositions. A key figure in feminist art discourse, she challenged conventional views of gender and identity. Though recognized late in life, her legacy endures through her innovation, psychological depth, and the universal resonance of her themes.

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