Louise Bourgeois- Cumul I

Louise Bourgeois was a French-American artist (1911-2010) who is now considered the founder of confessional art. She recently holds the record for the highest paid for piece of art by a woman.  However, here we are going to take a look at her Cumul I sculpture in particular.

Embedded in her Cumul 1 sculpture are a series of childhood drama and psychoanalytic metaphors. At the very top, Bourgeois plays with the title of her work. The title "cumul" can mean both an accumulation of torments that she endured in her childhood, as well as cumulus clouds in a meaning that she has risen above all of her past. Next, a closer look at the sculpture, the viewer can make out male and female body parts of breasts and penises that make up the cloud.  She noted that it must have been Freudian theory of traumatized childhood effecting latter life occurrences. If she was unaware of the shapes she was forming, one could say this was a dawn out "Freudian Slip" in which she unconsciously acted as she truly believes. However, after viewing more of her work it is hard to believe that she did this unintentionally for it seems she has an infatuation with sexuality. Her father had an affair with her nanny and this is what caused the root of her traumatic childhood, but it leaves you asking did it cause a form of psychological condition? There are theories of people being "stuck" in phases of growing up depending on how healthy their childhood was. Could Bourgeoisie have been stuck in the "phallic stage" where she had emotions for her father in a way that she saw how the affair effected him and use that analysis so that she could tighten their bond and eventually became fixated on sexuality?  

Sources:

http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/louise-bourgeoiss-cumul-i.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Bourgeois

http://www.radford.edu/rbarris/Women%20and%20art/louise%20bourgeois.html