For the first time in Italy, an exhibition that includes works from all periods of Louise Bourgeois's career will be inaugurated at the Capodimonte Museum in Naples. The artist - who over the last few decades has become a symbol of modernity - will present a collection of works that trace the steps of her artistic production from the last century until the present day, in a knowledgeable reflection that unites poetry and individual assumptions with the ordered language of contemporary avant-garde art.

Born in Paris in 1911, she moved to New York with her husband Robert Goldwater in 1938, where she currently lives. It is here that she began her artistic career: an extremely vast production that uses the most varied of techniques, but always with a particular focus on the creation of sculptural forms. Sculpture involves the body and therefore has the power to exorcise demons; this is how the path of her work unfolds, a continual exploration that delves into the depths of her own personal traumas, fears and suffering. The early emotions of her childhood in France are transferred into the objectivity of small and large sculptures in a wide variety of material, from the solidity of marble to soft fabrics and synthetic materials.

The Capodimonte installation will be composed of approximately sixty works, including two new Cell sculptures that have never before been exhibited.

The works will be exhibited throughout the museum and in the new, recently inaugurated exhibition spaces, in a continual dialogue with the paintings and objects of the antique and prestigious permanent collection of the Capodimonte Museum affirming, yet again, the attention and space that the Fine Arts Office and its renowned museum reserves for contemporary art.

In the Causa Hall, an installation of mixed media hanging sculptures from the 1960s to the present, including the famous Arch of Hysteria (1993); in the central courtyards of the royal palace, the great Maman (1999), with its disturbing height of over 9 metres, will be waiting to welcome the visitors while Crouching Spider (2003), will occupy the central area of the Arazzi d'Avalos hall.

The Cell, Peaux De Lapins, Chiffons Ferrailles À Vendre, is a time capsule of her obsessions and will be installed - for the fist time - in the hall of seventeenth-century Neapolitan paintings, in front of the two versions of Apollo e Marsyas by Jusepe de Ribera and Luca Giordano. Also being exhibited for the first time, Cell (The Last Climb), deals with the passage of time and the journey of life.

A precious collection of Bourgeois's smaller works will find their pride of place in the Wunderkammer (Cabinets of Wonder) on the main floor, in an intriguing analogy between the precious handmade objects of the ancient and famous House of Farnese collection.

The exhibition also highlights the multiple techniques, materials and solutions that the artist applies, including some of her more recent graphic techniques.

Briefly, a more than worthy tribute to one of the most relevant and important figures of the contemporary art scene.

The exhibition has been organised and curated by Soprintendenza Speciale per il Patrimonio Storico, Artistico, Etnoantropologico e per il Polo Museale della città di Napiil, and Studio Louise Bourgeois; promoted by the Ministry for Cultural Assets and Activities, the Campania Region and the Local Authority for Tourism and Cultural Heritage, in collaboration with the Province of Naples and the Municipality of Naples.

Naples, Museo di Capodimonte

via Miano 2

Exhibition opening times 10.00 - 19.00

Museum opening times 8.30 - 19.00

The Ticket Office closes at 18.00

closed Wednesdays

Admission

combined admission to Exhibition/Museum

full price 9,00 euro

concessions 4,50 euro

timed ticket 7,00 euro (valid from 14.00 to 17.00)

Booking

required for groups and schools

groups 20,00 euro (min 20 - max 30 people)

schools 5,00 euro (max 30 people)

individuals 1,50 euro

Information and Bookings

848 800 288 / 06 39967050 (Mon.-Fri. 9.00-18.00, Sat 9.00 - 14.00);