Louise Bourgeois

Born in Paris in 1911, Louise Bourgeois entered the Sorbonne in 1932 to study mathematics, but turned to art the next year, studying at the École des Beaux Arts, and in artists' studios in Montparnasse and Montmartre. She moved to New York in 1938, and continued to study at the Art Students League; the first one-person exhibition of her paintings took place at Bertha Schaefer Gallery, New York in 1945, and she first exhibited her sculpture at Periodot Gallery in 1950. The Museum of Modern Art presented a retrospective exhibition of Bourgeois' work in 1982. She represented the United States at the Venice Biennale in 1993; her work has been exhibited and collected by museums internationally.