When Iwan Wirth asked Jerry Gorovoy, Louise Bourgeois’s right hand of 30 years, to curate an exhibition at Hauser & Wirth’s Zurich gallery timed to Art Basel, the assistant turned curator had a lightning-bolt idea. His show, "L’Araignée et les Tapisseries" ("The Spider and the Tapestries"), deftly weaves together a rare selection of the late French-American artist’s tapestry works—which began with sculptures made from her old clothes—and represents one of her most emotionally fraught series.
"She associated the spider with her mother because her mother actually wove tapestries for restoration," says Gorovoy. All of the women in her family restored tapestries—her mother came from the famed French weaving town of Aubusson—and her father’s gallery helped the practice regain a postwar foothold among the beau monde. Gorovoy explains, "It just had a particular resonance, this idea of restoration, reparation, and the restorative powers of art."
Among the highlights are a cross and a confessional that were developed out of works made for a chapel project a decade ago, as well as two tapestry spiders perched on metal legs. Many of the works, including the small spiders, are on loan from private collectors. Also throughout the gallery are the artist’s later-career "Stack" sculptures, made from blocks covered in tapestry.
"With the early work, things were being cut, things were being joined," says Gorovoy. "The later work is much more about her fear of abandonment. Things were brought together, things were sewn, things were bound. She didn’t want things separated; she wanted to hold on to them." That same idea might also apply to this year’s Art Basel: While there may be various ephemeral exhibitions surrounding the fair, this spider’s web leaves an indelible mark.
Through July 26 at Hauser & Wirth, Zurich; hauserwirth.com
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