{
"data": {
"id": 162292,
"accession_number": "2002.29",
"share_license_status": "Copyrighted",
"tombstone": "Blind Man's Buff, 1984. Louise Bourgeois (American, 1911\u20132010). White marble on wooden base; overall: 92.7 x 88.9 x 63.5 cm (36 1/2 x 35 x 25 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund, 2002.29. \u00a9 The Easton Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY",
"current_location": "229C Contemporary",
"title": "Blind Man's Buff",
"creation_date": "1984",
"creation_date_earliest": 1984,
"creation_date_latest": 1984,
"artists_tags": [
"female"
],
"culture": [
"America"
],
"technique": "white marble on wooden base",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Contemporary Art",
"collection": "CONTEMP - Sculpture",
"type": "Sculpture",
"measurements": "Overall: 92.7 x 88.9 x 63.5 cm (36 1/2 x 35 x 25 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.927,
"height_inch": 36,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.5,
"width": 0.889,
"width_inch": 35,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.0,
"depth": 0.635,
"depth_inch": 25,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.0
},
"marble without base": {}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": "\u00a9 The Easton Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY",
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 229612,
"title": "Louise Bourgeois",
"description": "Louise Bourgeois. Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (organizer) (October 11, 2007-January 27, 2008); Centre national d'art et de culture Georges Pompidou, Paris cedex O4, France (March 5-June 2, 2008); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY (June 27-September 28, 2008).",
"opening_date": "2007-10-11T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 226564,
"title": "Double Sexus: Hans Bellmer and Louise Bourgeois",
"description": "Double Sexus: Hans Bellmer and Louise Bourgeois. Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH (organizer) (March 26-August 7, 2011).",
"opening_date": "2011-03-26T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 393229,
"title": "Contemporary Installation",
"description": "Contemporary Installation. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer).",
"opening_date": "2021-04-12T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Louise Bourgeois: Sculpture. Robert Miller Gallery, New York (September 11 \u2013 October 6, 1984).",
"opening_date": "1984-10-06T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Sculpture by Women in the Eighties. University of Pittsburgh Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA (November 7 \u2013 December 8, 1985).",
"opening_date": "1985-12-08T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Sculpture by Louise Bourgeois. The Taft Museum, Cincinnati, OH (organizer) (May 5 \u2013 June 28, 1987); The Art Museum at Florida International University, Miami, FL (October 23, 1987 \u2013 January 18, 1988); Laguna Gloria Art Museum, Austin, TX (July 1 \u2013 August 28, 1988); Washington University, Gallery of Art, St. Louis, MO (September 18 \u2013 October 30, 1988); Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY (September 27 \u2013 November, 26 1989).",
"opening_date": "1987-06-28T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Louise Bourgeois: A Retrospective Exhibition. Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, West Germany (organizer) (December 2, 1989 \u2013 January 28, 1990); St\u00e4dtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, West Germany (February 14 \u2013 March 25, 1990); Lyon Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Art Contemporain, Lyon, France (July 5 \u2013 August 20, 1990); Fundaci\u00f3n T\u00e0pies, Barcelona, Spain (November 6, 1990 \u2013 January 6, 1991); Kunstmuseum, Berne, Switzerland (March 7 \u2013 May 5, 1991); Kr\u00f6ller-M\u00fcller Museum, Otterlo, The Netherlands (May 25 \u2013 July 8, 1991).",
"opening_date": "1989-12-02T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Louise Bourgeois: Recent Work 1984-1989. Riverside Studios, London (May 2 \u2013 June 17, 1990).",
"opening_date": "1990-06-17T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Louise Bourgeois: The Locus of Memory, Works 1982-1993. Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY (co-organizer) (April 22 \u2013 July 31, 1994); The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C (co-organizer) (September 23, 1994 \u2013 January 15, 1995); Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague, Czech Republic (March 15 \u2013 May 28, 1995); Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (June 23 \u2013 October 8, 1995).",
"opening_date": "1994-07-31T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Louise Bourgeois [1911-2010], New York, NY, possibly consigned to Robert Miller Gallery, New York, NY",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1984-?",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "(Robert Miller Gallery, New York, NY)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?-?",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "(Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne, Germany, 1995, sold to private collector)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?-1995",
"sortorder": 3
},
{
"description": "Private Collector",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1995-?",
"sortorder": 4
},
{
"description": "(Christie's, NY, May, 14, 2002, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "2002",
"sortorder": 5
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "2002-",
"sortorder": 6
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "Historians have made connections between the bulging, rounded forms in Blind Man's Buff and representations of Artemis of Ephesus, the goddess of fertility in Greek mythology, and the Venus of Willendorf, one of the earliest ancient art objects discovered.",
"description": "Wit and play are essential elements throughout Louise Bourgeois\u2019s work. Blind Man\u2019s Buff is named for the child\u2019s game in which a blindfolded person must search for fellow players using only sound and touch. The artist\u2019s revision of \u201cbluff\u201d to \u201cbuff\u201d has a dual meaning. It evokes the method of smoothing or buffing marble, which was part of the artwork\u2019s production. Buff also relates to the sculpture\u2019s suggestion of nude body parts, which emerge from the solid marble. The allusion to nudity is reinforced by the fabric folds visible at the sculpture\u2019s edges, as if clothing has been cast aside.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79986260"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, \u201cBlind Man\u2019s Buff, Rare Sculpture by Modern Master Louise Bourgeois, Acquired for Contemporary Collection,\u201d May 15, 2002, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.",
"page_number": null,
"url": "https://archive.org/details/cmapr4452"
},
{
"citation": "Grove, Jeffrey D., \"Blind Man's Buff\", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 43 no. 04, April 2003",
"page_number": "Mentioned & reproduced: p. 8-9",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2003-04/page/n7"
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: P. 120",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "\u201cCalendar.\u201d The Burlington Magazine 144, no. 1197 (December 2002).",
"page_number": "Reproduced p. 786",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Bal, Mieke. Louise Bourgeois' Spider: The Architecture of Art-Writing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001.",
"page_number": "Reproduced p. 67; mentioned p. 66",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Bernadac, Marie-Laure, and Louise Bourgeois. Louise Bourgeois. Paris: Flammarion, 1996.",
"page_number": "Reproduced p. 106",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Bernadac, Marie-Laure, and Louise Bourgeois. Louise Bourgeois. Paris: Flammarion, 2006.",
"page_number": "Reproduced p. 123",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Bourgeois, Louise, Lynne Cooke, Be\u0301atrice Parent, and Suzanne Page\u0301. Louise Bourgeois; Sculptures, environnements, dessins 1938-1995. Paris: Paris-Muse\u0301es, 1995.",
"page_number": "Reproduced p. 161",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Jahn, Andrea, and Louise Bourgeois. Louise Bourgeois: Subversionen des Ko\u0308rpers : die Kunst der 40er bis 70er Jahre. Berlin: Reimer, 1999.",
"page_number": "Reproduced p. 202, Fig. 106; mentioned p. 199.",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Bourgeois, Louise, Charlotta Kotik, Terrie Sultan, and Christian Leigh. Louise Bourgeois: The Locus of Memory, Works 1982-1993. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1994.",
"page_number": "Reproduced p. 90, Plate 5; mentioned p. 56.",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Bourgeois, Louise, and Stuart Morgan. Louise Bourgeois. Cincinnati, Ohio: Taft Museum, 1987.",
"page_number": "Reproduced p. 34-35.",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Morris, Frances, Paulo Herkenhoff, and Marie-Laure Bernadac. Louise Bourgeois. London: Tate Pub, 2007.",
"page_number": "Reproduced p. 59, Fig. 42; mentioned pgs. 58 and 60.",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Heartney, Eleanor, Helaine Posner, Nancy Princenthal, and Sue Scott. After the Revolution: Women Who Transformed Contemporary Art. 2013.",
"page_number": "Reproduced p. 42; mentioned p. 43",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Gorovoy, Jerry, Louise Bourgeois, Pandora Tabatabai Asbaghi, and Paulo Herkenhoff. Louise Bourgeois: blue days and pink days. Milan: Fondazione Prada, 1997.",
"page_number": "Reproduced p. 165.",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Storr, Robert, Louise Bourgeois, Paulo Herkenhoff, and Allan Schwartzman. Louise Bourgeois. London: Phaidon Press, 2003.",
"page_number": "Reproduced and mentioned p. 70.",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Tani, Ellen Y., and Amanda Cachia. Second Sight: The Paradox of Vision in Contemporary Art. Exh. Cat. Brunswick, ME: Bowdoin College Museum of Art, 2018.",
"page_number": "Reproduced p. 35, Fig. 18; mentioned p. 35-36.",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Christie\u2019s. Post-War and Contemporary. New York: Christie\u2019s, 16 May 2013, Lot 233.",
"page_number": "Reproduced p. 262.",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Christie\u2019s. Post-War and Contemporary. New York: Christie\u2019s, 14 May 2002, Lot 28.",
"page_number": "Reproduced p. 82.",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Kim, Tina. Kukje Gallery: 25 Years. Seoul: Kukje Gallery, 2007.",
"page_number": "Reproduced p. 19.",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Louise Bourgeois: Femme. Exh. Cat. Baltimore, MD: Walters Art Museum, 2006.",
"page_number": "Reproduced p. 23.",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Bourgeois, Louise. Louise Bourgeois: Recent Work 1984-1989. London: Riverside Studios, 1990.",
"page_number": "Reproduced p. 28.",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Louise Bourgeois: Sculpture, Drawings and Prints. Exh. Cat. Jena, Germany: St\u00e4dtischen Museen Jena, 2010.",
"page_number": "Reproduced p. 18 and 53.",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Bourgeois, Louise, and Xavier Tricot. Un Salon Pour Louise Bourgeois. Oudenburg [Belgium]: Foundation De Elf Lijnen, 2006.",
"page_number": "Reproduced pgs. 22-23.",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Bourgeois, Louise. Louise Bourgeois: Rijksmuseum Kro\u0308ller-Mu\u0308ller, Otterlo, 25 Mei - 8 Juli 1991. Schaffhausen [Switzerland]: Verlag Photographic AG, 1989.",
"page_number": "Reproduced pgs. 34 and 151.",
"url": null
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2002.29",
"images": {},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 162292,
"creators": [
{
"id": 6371,
"description": "Louise Bourgeois (American, 1911\u20132010)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": null,
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1911",
"death_year": "2010",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "2002-05-14T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1984,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1984",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "cover",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": true,
"updated_at": "2026-05-28 11:04:05.611000"
}
}