{
"data": {
"id": 162293,
"accession_number": "2002.29.a",
"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.a. \u00a9 The Easton Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY",
"current_location": null,
"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,
"width": 0.889,
"depth": 0.635
}
},
"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": "New York, Robert Miller Gallery, Louise Bourgeois: Sculpture, September-October 1984",
"opening_date": "1984-09-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "University of Pittsburgh Gallery, Sculpture by Women in the Eighties, November-December 1985",
"opening_date": "1985-11-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Cincinnati, The Taft Museum; Miami, The Art Museum at Florida International University; Austin, Laguna Gloria Art Museum; St Louis, Washington University, Gallery of Art; and Syracuse, Everson Museum of Art, Louise Bourgeois, May 1987-November 1989 (illustrated, n.p.)",
"opening_date": "1987-05-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Frankfurt, Frankfurter Kunstverein; Munich, St\u00e4dtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus; Lyon, Mus\u00e9e d'Art Contemporain; Barcelona, Fonda\u00e7ion Tapies; Berne, Kunstmuseum; and Otterlo, Kr\u00f6ller-Muller-Museum, Louise Bourgeois: A Retrospective Exhibition, December 1989-July 1991, p. 151 (illustrated)",
"opening_date": "1989-12-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "London, Riverside Studios, Louise Bourgeois: Recent Work 1984-1989, May-June 1990, p.28 (illustrated)",
"opening_date": "1990-05-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Brooklyn Museum of Art; Washington, D.C., The Corcoran Gallery of Art; Prague, Galerie Rudolfinum; and Mus\u00e9e d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Louise Bourgeois: The Locus of Memory, Works 1982-1993, April 1994-October 1995, p. 90, pl. 5 (illustrated)",
"opening_date": "1994-04-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Tate Modern (10/11/2007 - 1/27/2008), Centre national d'art et de culture Georges Pompidou (3/5/2008 - 6/2/2008), and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (6/27/2008 - 9/28/2008): \"Louise Bourgeois\" p. 58-59, fig. 42.",
"opening_date": "2007-10-11T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Wexner Center for the Arts, The Ohio State University (3/26/2011 - 8/7/2011): \"Double Sexus: Hans Bellmer and Louise Bourgeois\"",
"opening_date": "2011-03-26T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Louise Bourgeois [1911-2010], New York, NY, possibly consigned to Robert Miller Gallery, New York, NY",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1984-?",
"sortorder": null
},
{
"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's work. Here the work's title is a variation on \"Blind Man's Bluff,\" the child's game in which a blindfolded person must look for fellow players using only sound and touch. The artist's revision of \"bluff\" to \"buff\" has a dual meaning. It evokes the method of smoothing or \"buffing\" marble, which was part of the work's production. \"Buff\" also relates to the sculpture's evocation of nude body parts, both male and female. The allusion to nudity is reinforced by the fabric folds visible at the sculpture's edges, as if clothing has been cast aside.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79986264"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [
{
"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": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2002.29.a",
"images": {},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 162293,
"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": "part",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": "2002.29",
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-03-26 23:59:09.529000"
}
}