Femme Maison: the story of a metamorphosis

The cause of this metamorphosis is a small engraving measuring 11.2 centimetres at its base, by 25.6 centimetres in height, entitled Femme Maison.

Femme Maison (House Woman) is one of the most iconic works that Parisian artist Louise Bourgeois presented in this exhibition, the first devoted to a woman by the New York temple of modern art in its entire history. With its very particular visual language, Femme Maison defends the quest for feminine identity beyond the role of the housewife. Or trophy wife.

The excitement the work produces in Lluc is so great that the African-American security guard who has observed her from a corner of the room for several hours is tempted to ask this lady if she is alright, or if she would like him to take her outside for some fresh air.

“When I discovered Femme Maison I felt understood. Someone who did not know me had drawn a portrait of me. This graphic representation of my emotional state transmitted to me the decision and strength to rectify the script of my life”, Lluc relates 36 years later in her gallery at number 4, Calle Can Cavalleria in Palma.

From that day on she began to immerse herself in the oeuvre of Louise Bourgeois. In her texts and purely autobiographical works, based on the love-hate relationships linked to her memory, the driving force behind her immense creativity. As she gathered more information, the desire to meet the artist in person became increasingly overwhelming.

Fate spun her threads in such a way that this meeting took place, during the reception of the exhibition of works by Joan Miró in 1993 held - curiously enough - at the very same MoMA. “I went up to her like a teenager, to get her autograph. We spoke for a little while and an inexplicable connection arose between us. At the end of the conversation she gave me her details for me to send her the catalogues I was publishing in my gallery”, tells Lluc.

One year later, in 1994, the Lluc Fluxà gallery was the venue for a graphic work exhibition. The display was presided over by Femme Maison, which the gallery-owner had acquired in 1990, at the Art Basel show.

“That same year I travelled to New York with the aim of showing Louise the photos of the exhibition. Back then she was already a totem of contemporary art, and it was very rare for her circle to allow her to meet anyone. I guess it was because of my persevering nature that I was finally given five minutes to greet her, and little else. But that five-minute meeting ended up turning into a three-hour meeting. In it, Louise encouraged me to express my experiences and cast away my fears. From that moment on a relationship came into being in which our memories often became merged”.

The fruit of that relationship was the creation of a beautiful book, published by Galería Lelong, with texts by Lluc and original engravings by Louise Bourgeois.

“We discovered many common experiences, to the point that she allowed me to appropriate her drawings to superimpose them on my family photographs. For her part Louise intervened spontaneously with texts underneath the images, in turn appropriating moments belonging to my own history”.

“From 1994 to 1999 I travelled to New York twice a year to work with Louise. Her talent, her mental agility, her capacity for invention threw me, I had to make a huge effort to concentrate in order to understand the way she functioned, which was at once infantile and extremely wise. She allowed herself to be swept along by the conscience-subconsciousness duality and made me a part of it. She was [...]

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