RICHARD MARSHALL: Louise, I would like to discuss two separate, but related, periods of your life — your early years in New York during the 1940s, and the artwork you have produced during the first seven years of the 21st century.

You moved to New York from Paris after your marriage to American art historian Robert Goldwater in 1938. What were your initial impressions of America and, specifically, New York City?

LOUISE BOURGEOIS: I thought New York was beautiful, a cruel beauty in its blue sky, white light, and skyscrapers. I felt lonely and stimulated.

RM: Was use of the English language complicated?

LB: I was taught English in school. My father thought it was important for me, as he wanted me to continue in the family business of tapestries.

RM: Did you set up your own studio?

LB: It was not possible, as we lived in Robert’s small apartment.

RM: By 1941 you had three young sons, a busy and influential husband, a home, and your own art studies? How did you manage?

LB: Given the family setup, I worked on printmaking and painting. It was only when I encountered the roof of the building where we lived that I was able to concentrate on sculpture.

RM: Between 1945 and 1949 you had your first individual exhibitions of paintings, prints, and sculpture. How did the exhibitions come about?

LB: Arthur Drexler, who was an artist at the time but later became the curator of architecture and design at MoMA, offered me my first show of sculpture at the Peridot Gallery in 1949.

RM: What did the artworks express?

LB: I re-created all the people that I had left behind in France. This was a period of both homesickness and mourning. It was an environmental installation where the viewer would enter the room and circulate among these presences. They had no bases and came directly up from the floor. They all came to a point and were fragile, which is the way I felt.

RM: What was the critical and financial response?

LB: The response was almost nothing, but artists like Duchamp and others were intrigued. It was at my second show of sculpture at the Peridot Gallery in 1950 that Alfred Barr acquired Sleeping Figure for The Museum of Modern Art.

RM: You have lived in the same home on West 20th Street for almost 45 years. What does it mean to you? It is expressed in your art?

LB: The house on West 20th Street is a friendly refuge. It is like one of my “Lairs” or large “Cells.” It has many doors and staircases, so you can come and go. The house is very functional.

RM: Because you no longer visit your Brooklyn studio, how do you organize your days?

LB: I had to give up the Brooklyn studio, as the area was being redeveloped. Now I work in my brownstone, usually working on sculpture in the morning and drawings or prints in the afternoon.

RM: Do you continue to review younger artists’ work at your home on Sunday? What is the purpose of these meetings?

LB: I organized my Sunday salons as a way of keeping in touch with mostly younger artists, writers, musicians, dancers, and poets.