Four eyes stare from an undulating bronze cloud; their clear pupils can be illuminated at night. This work by artist Louise Bourgeois deals with the gaze, and the desire to both look at and be looked at by others. As Bourgeois stated in 2001, “The theme of the Eyes has preoccupied me for many decades. I have always said that with words you can say whatever you want, but the Eyes never lie. The Eyes are a metaphor for the truth, which is what I am after. Whether it is an Eye that sees the reality of things or whether it is an eye that sees a world of fantasy…It is the quality of your Eyes and the strength of your Eyes that are expressed in this [work]…I live in a visual world where my Eyes are everything.”

© 2020 The Easton Foundation / VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Photo credit: Jerry L. Thompson.