Firstly, this is not the story of an ageing Austrian psychoanalyst who goes for a long weekend of excitement and ultimate tragedy with his best friend a French-American artist like this film. No, this is the Louise Bourgeois exhibition The Return of the Repressed at the Freud Museum in London. The Freud Museum is in a large Victorian house located in a leafy road in Hampstead where Freud and his family escaped to after the Nazi occupation of Vienna.
The exhibition is small but provocative and draws on Bourgeois' troubled childhood and difficult early relationship with her father. It consists of several abstract textile sculptures which deal with femininity and sexuality and the often painful relationship between men and women; combining both male and female sexual organs in one piece at times, expressing how completely interwoven she believed the genders to be. There are also letters and notes exposing her anxieties and fears which reveal a direct influence on her artwork and the profound influence her early life had on her creativity. The highlight for me, however, is the steel spider displayed in the garden. She produced several of these sculptures in various sizes and these graceful forms entitled Maman refer to the themes of protection and nurturing.
After absorbing our share of cultural information, and as it was such a beautiful day, we wandered up to Hampstead for some lunch. It was great to be able to sit outside and watch the world wander by whilst surrounded by lovely terraced houses and some very nice independent shops.
Even the ticket hall at Hampstead Underground station with its ornate green tiles was worth a photograph!
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