The second leg of late French-American artist Louise Bourgeois artworks' tour of China kicked off at Beijing's Song Art Museum on Sunday. The Eternal Thread exhibition features 49 of the artist's works, including 10 new exhibits that were not shown during its time in Shanghai. 

Maman by Louise Bourgeois (Photo: Xu Liuliu/Global Times)

Curated by Philip Larratt-Smith, the exhibition offers a focused look at Bourgeois' career. Major highlights include her Personage sculpture from the late 1940s, the Cell installation series from the 1990s, fabric works made during the last decade of her life and the monumental spider sculpture Maman. 

According to the curator, the artist's iconic spider sculptures represent her mother, who was in charge of a weaving restoration workshop in France. Thus the title The Eternal Thread also stands for the umbilici cord that binds mother and child together during birth. The spider creates its web, which is a living architecture, out of its own body, just as Bourgeois made her sculpture out of her own self.

Cell (black days) by Louise Bourgeois (Photos: Courtesy of the Song Art Museum)

Wang Duan, a representative from the Song Art Museum, said at the opening that "We hope every visitor can walk into Bourgeois' emotional world." 

Arch of hysteria by Louise Bourgeois

Wang Zhongjun, founder of the Song Art Museum, said that the exhibition will raise the profile of Bourgeois' works among the public. 

The exhibition is set to run until April 23.