Abstract

The Louise Bourgeois Archive (LBA) was established by The Easton Foundation, a charitable and non-profit organization put in place more than thirty years ago by the artist Louise Bourgeois. Since her death in 2010, the Foundation exists as two spaces that are simultaneously distinct and interlinked: one is the former artist’s home and studio and the other, housed in the building next door to Louise Bourgeois’s townhouse, is the LBA. A research centre aimed at academic and art-world scholars, it is directed by Maggie Wright, who is also leading ongoing efforts to catalogue Louise Bourgeois’s vast collection of personal documents, a monumental enterprise in both scale and ambition. Academic and curatorial research into a late artist’s work requires dialogue and collaboration with the artist’s estate. The way scholars and curators interact with an institution set up to protect and promote the work of an artist is central to guaranteeing independent research work. Yet, the nature of these relationships is rarely commented upon, and the role played by artists’ estates often remains out of sight. Wright has agreed to be interviewed as part of this issue devoted to Louise Bourgeois’s archival writings and documents. The interview was carried out by email exchanges between January and April 2019. Wright’s description of the LBA details this emerging archival corpus ripe for scholarly exploration. The interview also provides a clear and extensive overview of the predetermined functions and roles of the LBA, giving an insider’s view into the workings of an artist’s archives and some of the ambitions and challenges that have determined the focus of this particular archive.

摘要

路易丝·布尔乔亚档案馆 (LBA) 由伊斯顿基金会 (Easton Foundation) 建立，该基金会是三十多年前由艺术家路易丝·布尔乔亚 (Louise Bourgeois) 创立的慈善和非盈利组织。自从她 2010 年去世以来，基金会作为两个既不同又相互关联的空间存在：一个是前艺术家的家和工作室，另一个是 LBA，位于 Louise Bourgeois 联排别墅隔壁的大楼内。这是一个面向学术和艺术界学者的研究中心，由 Maggie Wright 领导，她还领导着对 Louise Bourgeois 的大量个人文件进行分类的持续努力，这是一项规模和雄心都具有里程碑意义的事业。对已故艺术家作品的学术和策展研究需要与艺术家的遗产进行对话和合作。学者和策展人与为保护和促进艺术家作品而设立的机构互动的方式对于保证独立研究工作至关重要。然而，这些关系的本质却很少被评论，艺术家遗产所扮演的角色也常常被忽视。Wright 已同意接受采访，作为本期专门讨论 Louise Bourgeois 档案著作和文件的一部分。采访是在 2019 年 1 月至 2019 年 4 月期间通过电子邮件交流进行的。赖特对 LBA 的描述详细说明了这个新兴的档案语料库已经成熟，可以进行学术探索。访谈还对 LBA 的预定职能和角色提供了清晰而广泛的概述，