Auping asks, Bourgeois answers

Each day this week I'm posting an excerpt from 30 Years: Interviews and Outtakes, a book of conversations between MAMFW chief curator Michael Auping and dozens of artists.

Michael Auping: Did [Marcel Duchamp] ever say anything [about the sculptures of yours on view at the Peridot Gallery in 1949, 1950 and 1953]? What did he think about them?

Louise Bourgeois: Well, he didn't say much. He was a man of few words. But he would say, 'Louise, tell me about it, what does that mean?' Duchamp sent Pierre Matisse to see these early works. he also sent Alfred Barr. Barr, who was quite a card -- that one, you know, I could write a book about Alfred Barr -- he came into the room, and he looked very detached, very museum-like, un gros legume. He pretended that he was not overly interested, that he had come because Marcel had told him. Very detached, you know. So I didn't know what to say about that.

And then, I noticed that he approached a particular piece that was full of little pieces hanging from it -- Persistent Antagonism. So, he stood along time in front of this piece and he touched those little hanging things. I was watching, I didn't say anything. I always say the wrong thing. But I was watching him, and he took them like this and he lifted them. He was having a lot of fun. Then he said, 'This is very erotic.'

I didn't answer. Better not to answer, right? And he went all around the room, and he made believe that he was interested in one piece, when actually he had the intention of buying another piece, right. Finally, he decided. I'll have to make the story short -- but finally he bought one piece for The Museum of Modern Art, Sleeping Figure [at right]. It's totally anti-erotic. Even though he was a Puritan, he did not deny to himself the fact that genitals gave him a kick. And he paid $400 for Sleeping Figure. Alfred Barr was a fantastic buyer. He knew how to bargain.