‘This is the portrait, from memory, of a woman who devoted her life to her art, a life that was also the life of the century.’

Jean Frémon will discuss Now, Now, Louison, an interior monologue describing Louise Bourgeois’s life and work, with poet and translator Cole Swensen.
Progressing by image and word associations, Frémon gives the reader a sense of fascinating and moving proximity to his world-renowned friend, artist Louise Bourgeois. His prose evokes Bourgeois’s history and inner life with precision, as only one artist regarding another can: her relationships with her family, with her adoptive country, with other artists and her assistant. The voice of the grande dame of the art world, famous for her insolence and humour, comes to vibrant life again.

In English. Free and open to the public. No RSVP necessary.

Jean Frémon is the director of a contemporary art gallery by day and a writer by night. He founded the Galerie Lelong in Paris and New York. In 1985 he commissioned Louise Bourgeois’ first European exhibition. Since 1969 he has had over twenty works published, including novels and poems, as well as essays on art, some of which have been translated into English, Spanish, German and Norwegian.

Cole Swensen is an American translator, poet, editor, and professor at Brown University in Rhode Island. She was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2004 and the recipient of a PEN USA Award for her translation of Jean Frémon’s The Island of the Dead. Cole Swensen was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2006.