It was not before the 1990s that Louise Bourgeois won global recognition for her artistic achievements, becoming famous for her monumental spider sculptures and room-sized cells. But it was in her early oil paintings that the artist first developed the formal vocabulary and defined the thematic concerns that she would continue to explore.

This catalogue accompanies the first major solo exhibition of Bourgeois' early paintings in Europe, placing them in dialogue with a selection of later sculptures, installations, drawings and prints.