Question 1

True or false: Louise Bourgeois was born in France but later became a US citizen.

Accepted Answer

True. She was born in Paris in 1911, moved to New York in 1938, and became a US citizen in 1955.

Question 2

True or false: Louise Bourgeois was born in Paris, France in 1911.

Accepted Answer

True. Louise Bourgeois was born on December 25, 1911, in Paris. She studied art there before moving to New York City in 1938.

Question 3

True or false: Louise Bourgeois's famous spider sculpture 'Maman' is over 30 feet tall.

Accepted Answer

True. 'Maman' stands 30 feet 6 inches tall, symbolizing her mother’s protective and weaving nature.

Question 4

True or false: Louise Bourgeois primarily worked as a painter throughout her career.

Accepted Answer

False. Louise Bourgeois is best known for her large-scale sculptures, especially her spider series, and also worked in printmaking and drawing. She was not primarily a painter.

Question 5

True or false: Bourgeois started her art career as a painter, not a sculptor.

Accepted Answer

True. She began as a painter and printmaker, only turning to sculpture in her 30s after moving to New York.

Question 6

True or false: Louise Bourgeois won the Turner Prize in 1991.

Accepted Answer

False. Louise Bourgeois never won the Turner Prize. She was nominated for the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale and received many honors, but the Turner Prize was not one of them.

Question 7

True or false: Louise Bourgeois won the Nobel Prize in Art in 1999.

Accepted Answer

False. There is no Nobel Prize for art. She won the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 1999.

Question 8

True or false: Louise Bourgeois received the National Medal of Arts from President Bill Clinton in 1997.

Accepted Answer

True. President Bill Clinton awarded Louise Bourgeois the National Medal of Arts in 1997 for her contributions to American art.

Question 9

True or false: Louise Bourgeois never exhibited any artwork until she was 70 years old.

Accepted Answer

False. She exhibited as early as the 1940s, though major fame came later in life, after her 70s.

Question 10

True or false: Louise Bourgeois died in her hometown of Paris, France.

Accepted Answer

False. Louise Bourgeois died in New York City on May 31, 2010, at age 98. She had lived in New York since 1938 and never returned to live in Paris.

Question 11

True or false: Louise Bourgeois created the monumental spider sculpture titled 'Maman' in 1999.

Accepted Answer

True. Louise Bourgeois first created 'Maman' (French for mother) in 1999. It stands over 30 feet tall and is displayed at Tate Modern in London and other locations worldwide.

Question 12

True or false: The 'Cells' series by Louise Bourgeois was inspired by the architecture of Louise Bourgeois's childhood home.

Accepted Answer

True. Louise Bourgeois often stated that her childhood home's architecture, particularly the Bièvre River, inspired the Cells series' enclosed, room-like environments.

Question 13

True or false: Bourgeois destroyed all her early tapestries because she hated weaving.

Accepted Answer

False. She actually learned tapestry restoration from her mother and kept many early works; she didn't destroy them.

Question 14

True or false: Bourgeois wrote an opera about spiders called 'Arachné'.

Accepted Answer

False. No such opera exists. She did write poetic texts, but she never composed an opera; 'Arachné' is a Greek myth.

Question 15

True or false: Louise Bourgeois moved to New York City in 1938 after marrying art historian Robert Goldwater.

Accepted Answer

True. Louise Bourgeois married American art historian Robert Goldwater in 1938 and moved to New York City, where she lived and worked for the rest of her life.

Question 16

True or false: Louise Bourgeois designed the interior of the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Accepted Answer

False. Louise Bourgeois never designed the Guggenheim's interior. Her work has been exhibited there, but the museum was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and later renovated by others.

Louise Bourgeois Trivia Questions