Louise Bourgeois: Drawings from the 1960s

i Louise Bourgeois (1911 - 2010), Untitled, 1968, Watercolor on paper, 48.3 x 62.9 cm, Photo: Christopher Burke, © The Easton Foundation / Licensed by DACS, UK and VAGA at ARS, NY

20 June – 14 Sept 2025
Gilbert and Ildiko Butler Drawings Gallery

For celebrated artist Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010), drawing was like an intimate journal, a practice that began when she was young, and remained a constant element of her artistic life. 

To coincide with the exhibition Abstract Erotic: Louise Bourgeois, Eva Hesse, Alice Adams, this focused display will present a group of drawings by Bourgeois from the 1960s, all on loan from The Easton Foundation of New York. These oneiric works illustrate the central role of drawing in her work and the way it intertwined with her sculptural practice during those years.  

Abstract shapes, predominantly round and colourful, occupy small and large sheets of paper. ‘Drawings are thought feathers’ Bourgeois said, ‘ideas that I seize in mid-flight and put down on paper’. Drawn in rhythmic movements, these drawings reflect the spontaneity of Bourgeois’s mark-making and reveal an artist who was less concerned with a finished product, but rather with the immediacy of the experience. For Bourgeois, the abstract drawings “come from a deep need to achieve peace, rest, and sleep. They… relate to unconscious memories’. 

Included with Gallery Entry ticket.

Abstract Erotic: Louise Bourgeois, Eva Hesse, Alice Adams will be on display in the Denise Coates Exhibitions Gallery on the third floor from 20 June – 14 Sept 2025. 

Tickets go on sale in 2025. Sign up to The Courtauld Gallery newsletter to hear our latest announcements and more. Join as a Friend for priority booking and unlimited entry.

Louise Bourgeois: Drawings from the 1960s

20 Jun - 21 Aug 2025

20 June - 14 Sep 2025

10:00 – 18:00 (last entry 17:15)

The Courtauld Gallery  The Gilbert and Ildiko Butler Drawings Gallery 

Join the art movement

Get free unlimited entry to The Courtauld Gallery and exhibitions, priority booking to selected events, advance notice of art history short courses, exclusive events, discounts and more.

Become a Friend
Courtauld Friends logo

You might also like

Exhibition, The Courtauld Gallery, What's on Highlights

Abstract Erotic

20 June - 14 Sep 2025

This major exhibition brings together the erotic and playful aspects of the work of Louise Bourgeois, Eva Hesse and Alice Adams to ask important questions about sexuality, bodies and humour....

Abstract Erotic

20 Jun - 14 Sep 2025

Read more
A painting by Philip Guston (1913-1980), Close-Up II, 1959

Display, The Courtauld Gallery, What's on Highlights

Post-War Abstraction: Works from The Courtauld

2 July - 12 Oct 2025

Drawn from The Courtauld's significant collection of post-war art, this display will examine forms of abstraction which emerged in the 1950s and 1960s in Europe and America....

Post-War Abstraction: Works from The Courtauld

2 Jul - 12 Oct 2025

Read more

Citations