Drawing Workshop: Perceptive Lines

As a kind of secret journaling, drawing was a daily ritual for Louise Bourgeois, and an important part of her artistic practice.

Using ink, watercolor and pencil, she would capture her innermost thoughts and experiences in pictures and words, giving shape to her emotions, thus bidding farewell to the complex memories and images of her past that were surfacing in her conscience, swathed in strong emotions.

Her first spider drawings were created in the late 1940s, while 50 years later they transformed into gigantic three-dimensional spiders made of bronze and steel.

So, in the drawings of Bourgeois, we recognize the artist’s ability to produce meaningful lines, mnemonic traces and fragments, which fade away, are redrawn, or change over time. In this way, the works move between abstraction and realism, dream and wakefulness, fragility and dynamism, with personal and psychoanalytical patterns and with the “woman” — the mother, the daughter, the female partner — holding a special place in her creative universe.

Taking a cue from the iconic Maman, participants in the drawing workshop “Perceptive Lines” will embark on a journey through the magical world of Bourgeois’s drawings, exploring the artist’s complex, multicolor designs in conjunction with their own experiential and emotional approach.

At the same time, over the course of the workshop, participants will have the opportunity to experiment with a variety of drawing materials, such as ink, graphite, pencil and charcoal, which will be coupled with the multiplicity of techniques employed in drawing to create works of visual art, highlighting its diversity as a medium of expression.

Workshop #1 The Fragile

Louise Bourgeois created “The Fragile” series of drawings when she was 95 years old. It is a series of self-portraits, consisting of a total of 36 compositions, dating from her younger years to her old age, through which the artist deals with her feelings about motherhood and fragility. In this workshop, participants will explore a variety of drawing techniques that capture the fragility of such a dynamic figure as that of the spider.

Workshop #2 Insomnia Drawings

In this workshop, we will draw inspiration from Bourgeois’s “Insomnia” series of drawings, which she created burning the midnight oil and capturing the experience of the state denoted by its title. How is the anguish of insomnia crystallized in images and drawings?

Workshop #3 “My Own Voice Wakes Me Up”

This workshop borrows its title from a psychoanalytical text by Louise Bourgeois, and focuses on the value of dreams through an examination of the artist’s work. Participants will be invited to explore their own dreams, through compositions made up of words and drawings.

Workshop #4 An Unfolding Portrait

The autobiographical transformation of Louise Bourgeois captures a series of titanic emotional struggles, filled with affection and violence, acceptance and questioning, fear and redemption, which are resolved through the creativity of art, embodying a personal pattern into a symbolic language. Which trait of yours could possibly evolve into a symbol?

Design - Implementation: Rania Bellou, visual artist

Workshop Support: Alexandros Kaklamanos, visual artist

Thursday 6 & 20/10 

18:30–20:30

Thursday 3 & 17/11 

18:30–20:30

For Adults
Up to 20 participants

MAKERSPACE

Free admission; online preregistration required.
 

For the workshop on 06/10, pre-registration starts at 28/09 at 12.00
For the workshop on 20/10, pre-registration starts at 14/10 at 12.00
For the workshop on 03/11, pre-registration starts at 26/10 at 12.00
For the workshop on 17/11, pre-registration starts at 09/11 at 12.00

Due to public health measures, there may be changes regarding either the staging of the event, or the maximum number of participants.