MoMA | Louise Bourgeois: The Complete Prints & Books

LOUISE BOURGEOIS: THE COMPLETE PRINTS & BOOKS

Louise Bourgeois: The Complete Prints & Books

Although Louise Bourgeois’s work takes many forms, veering from the representational to the abstract, her motivation remained remarkably consistent over the course of her long life. For her, art served as a means, a tool, and finally, she said, “a guarantee of sanity.” Motifs emerged in the process of harnessing her strong emotions and ultimately became visual metaphors for particular concerns and struggles. These motifs are grouped under the thematic headings cited here.

Spiders

Although recognized for exploring a broad array of materials and motifs, Bourgeois is perhaps best known for sculptures of spiders, ranging in size from a brooch of four inches to monumental outdoor pieces that rise to over 30 feet. Long a motif in Symbolist art, the spider encompassed several meanings for Bourgeois... More

Fabric Works I

Louise Bourgeois’s connection to fabric goes back to her childhood years, when she helped out in her family’s tapestry restoration workshop. As an adult, she long associated the act of sewing with repairing on a symbolic level, as she attempted to fix the damage she caused in personal relationships... More

“These works do not illustrate...
they are an exorcism...
That is what I am after...
to dig and to reveal.”

—Louise Bourgeois

Research in Progress

Print documentation will be added to this site incrementally, by theme, once a year.

Untitled, plate 4 of 8, from the illustrated book, The Puritan. 1990. Engraving with gouache additions

Abstraction

Feet. 1999. Drypoint

Body Parts

Musical Score. 2002. Drypoint with ink, pencil, and crayon additions

Music

Le Père et les trois fils. 1999. Lithograph with embossing and pastel additions

Objects

The Angry Cat. 2000. Drypoint and engraving

Animals & Insects

Frontispiece, for the illustrated book, The Insomnia Drawings. 2000. Etching

Faces & Portraits

Pregnant Woman Leaning on a Column. 2001. Drypoint with ink additions

Motherhood & Family

Untitled, no. 5 of 12, from the series, Spirals. 2005. Woodcut

Spirals

Untitled, plate 3 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence. 1947. Engraving

Architecture

Hamlet and Ophelia. 1997. Lithograph

Figures

Mountain Lakes. 1997. Engraving, etching, and aquatint

Nature

No (1). 1973. Photostat

Words

Pivotage Difficile (Difficult Steering). 1947. Engraving

Other

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