Ste. Sebastienne

Drawing upon the European visual tradition of the idealized male nude St. Sebastian, Louise Bourgeois issued prints of her composition in several editions. Here she represents a voluptuous female form, without arms; arrows threaten to puncture her body between her breasts, at the back of her thigh and calves, at her navel, and between her legs. In several interviews, Bourgeois described the figure either as a self-portrait or a woman “under attack.” The figure, evidently unwittingly, “antagonized people,” who then shot at her, leaving her confused, anxious, fearful. This process transformed her, making her “ugly,” or “mean,” and then “self-destroying, self-mutilating, masochistic.” The arrows directed at the figure’s breasts and between her legs suggest that the essence of femininity is under attack. The antagonism, Bourgeois clarified, is “external, not internal,” though it sets in motion a self-destructive dynamic against which no easily identified protection lies at hand.