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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Larry Ryan

What links Louise Bourgeois to Jay-Z’s comeback album?

Composite of images of Ed Ruscha, Jay-Z, Louise Bourgeois, Ari Marcopoulos, Gwyneth Paltrow, with black and white cartoon rabbits going down holes in a red line
Composite: Guardian Design/Getty Images/iStockphoto/MG18/Bridgeman Images/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic/Amblin/Kobal/Rex/Shutterstock

Bourgeois thinking

The great Paris-born, New York-dwelling artist Louise Bourgeois left an indelible mark on the art world over many decades until her death in 2010, aged 98. A retrospective, The Woven Child, at London’s Hayward Gallery charts her later work with fabrics and textiles.

 Louise Bourgeois
Louise Bourgeois’s work is starring at London’s Hayward Gallery … Photograph: Jacqueline Salmon/Artedia/Bridgeman Images

Ruscha-ing around

Since opening in 1968, the Hayward has hosted many famous shows, from a key early Bridget Riley retrospective in 1971 to Anish Kapoor’s first major show in 1998. In 2009, they mounted a retrospective for the great LA painter Ed Ruscha. OOF, as the fella himself might say.

Ed Ruscha
… which in 2009 mounted a retrospective for Ed Ruscha … Photograph: Getty Images

Conceptual goop

As well as in galleries around the world, Ruscha and his fellow west coast conceptualist John Baldessari appear on the walls of Gwyneth Paltrow’s Gooped-up California home – as displayed in Architectural Digest. The less said about the “sculptural, freestanding onyx​ bar” in the living room, however, the better.

Gwyneth Paltrow
… whose work appears in the home of Gwyneth Paltrow … Photograph: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

Hov is where the art is

In 2006, Jay-Z released Kingdom Come, a fairly unloved comeback album, following his “retirement”. On Hollywood, Jay-Z and Beyoncé trade lines about celebrity, with a nod to friends “Chris and Gwyneth”. Jay’s mid-to-late period has largely disappointed – 2013’s Magna Carta Holy Grail also didn’t hit earlier heights. The cover art for that record was shot by Ari Marcopoulos.

Jay-Z
… who is namechecked in Hollywood by Jay-Z, whose album Magna Carta Holy Grail had a cover shot by … Photograph: Leon Bennett/FilmMagic

The mummy returns

Photographer/film-maker Marcopoulos is the partner of artist Kara Walker, best known for her epic 2014 sphinx sculpture A Subtlety, Or the Marvelous Sugar Baby. In 2020, Walker installed Fons Americanus at Tate Modern for its Turbine Hall series. In 2000, the inaugural Turbine commission was from … Louise Bourgeois, including her giant spider, Maman.

Ari Marcopoulos
… Ari Marcopoulos, whose partner, Kara Walker, followed in Bourgeois’s footsteps in Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall series. Photograph: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue

Pairing notes

Watch Face the visceral terror of the spider by giving Arachnophobia a spin – rent it everywhere.

Eat Get in the Bourgeois state of mind along London’s South Bank at Bermondsey bistro Casse-Croûte. Expect suitably French fare – your boeufs and pigeons en croute and cuisse de lapin farcie. Bon appétit!

black and white cartoon rabbits going down holes in a red line
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