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Nov 12, 2009

Jan 12, 2011

Blind Man's Buff

1984

Part of a set. See all set records

Louise Bourgeois

(American, 1911–2010)

America, 20th century

White marble on wooden base

Overall: 92.7 x 88.9 x 63.5 cm (36 1/2 x 35 x 25 in.)

Weight: 400 kg (881.85 lbs.)

Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund 2002.29

Location

229C Contemporary

Did you know?

Historians have made connections between the bulging, rounded forms in Blind Man's Buff and representations of Artemis of Ephesus, the goddess of fertility in Greek mythology, and the Venus of Willendorf, one of the earliest ancient art objects discovered.

Description

Wit and play are essential elements throughout Louise Bourgeois's work. Here the work's title is a variation on "Blind Man's Bluff," the child's game in which a blindfolded person must look for fellow players using only sound and touch. The artist's revision of "bluff" to "buff" has a dual meaning. It evokes the method of smoothing or "buffing" marble, which was part of the work's production. "Buff" also relates to the sculpture's evocation of nude body parts, both male and female. The allusion to nudity is reinforced by the fabric folds visible at the sculpture's edges, as if clothing has been cast aside.

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Provenance

1984-?

Louise Bourgeois [1911-2010], New York, NY, possibly consigned to Robert Miller Gallery, New York, NY

?-?

(Robert Miller Gallery, New York, NY)

?-1995

(Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne, Germany, 1995, sold to private collector)

1995-?

Private Collector

2002

(Christie's, NY, May, 14, 2002, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

2002-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Cleveland Museum of Art, “Blind Man’s Buff, Rare Sculpture by Modern Master Louise Bourgeois, Acquired for Contemporary Collection,” May 15, 2002, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.org

Grove, Jeffrey D., "Blind Man's Buff", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 43 no. 04, April 2003 Mentioned & reproduced: p. 8-9 archive.org

Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 120

“Calendar.” The Burlington Magazine 144, no. 1197 (December 2002). Reproduced p. 786

Bal, Mieke. Louise Bourgeois' Spider: The Architecture of Art-Writing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001. Reproduced p. 67; mentioned p. 66

Bernadac, Marie-Laure, and Louise Bourgeois. Louise Bourgeois. Paris: Flammarion, 1996. Reproduced p. 106

Bernadac, Marie-Laure, and Louise Bourgeois. Louise Bourgeois. Paris: Flammarion, 2006. Reproduced p. 123

Bourgeois, Louise, Lynne Cooke, Béatrice Parent, and Suzanne Pagé. Louise Bourgeois; Sculptures, environnements, dessins 1938-1995. Paris: Paris-Musées, 1995. Reproduced p. 161

Jahn, Andrea, and Louise Bourgeois. Louise Bourgeois: Subversionen des Körpers : die Kunst der 40er bis 70er Jahre. Berlin: Reimer, 1999. Reproduced p. 202, Fig. 106; mentioned p. 199.

Bourgeois, Louise, Charlotta Kotik, Terrie Sultan, and Christian Leigh. Louise Bourgeois: The Locus of Memory, Works 1982-1993. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1994. Reproduced p. 90, Plate 5; mentioned p. 56.

Bourgeois, Louise, and Stuart Morgan. Louise Bourgeois. Cincinnati, Ohio: Taft Museum, 1987. Reproduced p. 34-35.

Morris, Frances, Paulo Herkenhoff, and Marie-Laure Bernadac. Louise Bourgeois. London: Tate Pub, 2007. Reproduced p. 59, Fig. 42; mentioned pgs. 58 and 60.

Heartney, Eleanor, Helaine Posner, Nancy Princenthal, and Sue Scott. After the Revolution: Women Who Transformed Contemporary Art. 2013. Reproduced p. 42; mentioned p. 43

Gorovoy, Jerry, Louise Bourgeois, Pandora Tabatabai Asbaghi, and Paulo Herkenhoff. Louise Bourgeois: blue days and pink days. Milan: Fondazione Prada, 1997. Reproduced p. 165.

Storr, Robert, Louise Bourgeois, Paulo Herkenhoff, and Allan Schwartzman. Louise Bourgeois. London: Phaidon Press, 2003. Reproduced and mentioned p. 70.

Tani, Ellen Y., and Amanda Cachia. Second Sight: The Paradox of Vision in Contemporary Art. Exh. Cat. Brunswick, ME: Bowdoin College Museum of Art, 2018. Reproduced p. 35, Fig. 18; mentioned p. 35-36.

Christie’s. Post-War and Contemporary. New York: Christie’s, 16 May 2013, Lot 233. Reproduced p. 262.

Christie’s. Post-War and Contemporary. New York: Christie’s, 14 May 2002, Lot 28. Reproduced p. 82.

Kim, Tina. Kukje Gallery: 25 Years. Seoul: Kukje Gallery, 2007. Reproduced p. 19.

Louise Bourgeois: Femme. Exh. Cat. Baltimore, MD: Walters Art Museum, 2006. Reproduced p. 23.

Bourgeois, Louise. Louise Bourgeois: Recent Work 1984-1989. London: Riverside Studios, 1990. Reproduced p. 28.

Louise Bourgeois: Sculpture, Drawings and Prints. Exh. Cat. Jena, Germany: Städtischen Museen Jena, 2010. Reproduced p. 18 and 53.

Bourgeois, Louise, and Xavier Tricot. Un Salon Pour Louise Bourgeois. Oudenburg [Belgium]: Foundation De Elf Lijnen, 2006. Reproduced pgs. 22-23.

Bourgeois, Louise. Louise Bourgeois: Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Otterlo, 25 Mei - 8 Juli 1991. Schaffhausen [Switzerland]: Verlag Photographic AG, 1989. Reproduced pgs. 34 and 151.

Exhibition history

Louise Bourgeois: Sculpture. Robert Miller Gallery, New York (September 11 – October 6, 1984).

Sculpture by Women in the Eighties. University of Pittsburgh Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA (November 7 – December 8, 1985).

Sculpture by Louise Bourgeois. The Taft Museum, Cincinnati, OH (organizer) (May 5 – June 28, 1987); The Art Museum at Florida International University, Miami, FL (October 23, 1987 – January 18, 1988); Laguna Gloria Art Museum, Austin, TX (July 1 – August 28, 1988); Washington University, Gallery of Art, St. Louis, MO (September 18 – October 30, 1988); Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY (September 27 – November, 26 1989).

Louise Bourgeois: A Retrospective Exhibition. Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, West Germany (organizer) (December 2, 1989 – January 28, 1990); Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, West Germany (February 14 – March 25, 1990); Lyon Musée d’Art Contemporain, Lyon, France (July 5 – August 20, 1990); Fundación Tàpies, Barcelona, Spain (November 6, 1990 – January 6, 1991); Kunstmuseum, Berne, Switzerland (March 7 – May 5, 1991); Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, The Netherlands (May 25 – July 8, 1991).

Louise Bourgeois: Recent Work 1984-1989. Riverside Studios, London (May 2 – June 17, 1990).

Louise Bourgeois: The Locus of Memory, Works 1982-1993. Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY (co-organizer) (April 22 – July 31, 1994); The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C (co-organizer) (September 23, 1994 – January 15, 1995); Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague, Czech Republic (March 15 – May 28, 1995); Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (June 23 – October 8, 1995).

Louise Bourgeois. Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (organizer) (October 11, 2007-January 27, 2008); Centre national d'art et de culture Georges Pompidou, Paris cedex O4, France (March 5-June 2, 2008); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY (June 27-September 28, 2008).

Double Sexus: Hans Bellmer and Louise Bourgeois. Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH (organizer) (March 26-August 7, 2011).

Contemporary Gallery Reinstallation 2021. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Blind Man's Buff|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/2002.29|author=Louise Bourgeois|year=1984|access-date=02 November 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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