Louise Bourgeois received her BA in philosophy from Lycée Fénelon in Paris in 1932. She also studied art at École des Beaux-Arts and École du Louvre. She then pursued independent academics at Académie Colarossi, Académie Ranson, Académie Julian, and Académie de la Grande Chaumière. In 1938 she moved the United States and remained there until her death in 2010. Bourgeois joined the American Abstract Artists group, where she befriended Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock. Her work ranges from painting, print, sculpture, installation and other three-dimensional works. Her work touches upon various themes, which include trauma, sexuality, the female experience, memory, and psychoanalysis. Her first solo retrospective took place in 1945 at Bertha Schaefer Gallery in New York. She has been a part of several solo and group exhibitions since, which includes in 1982 at the Modern Museum of Art in New York and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid. Bourgeois was named Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French minister of culture in 1983. Her work is also amongst several important collections.