LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Themes:

Abstraction, Faces & Portraits

Techniques:

Drypoint

Description:

Drypoint, with selective wiping, and black ink additions

Support:

Paper

Dimensions:

plate: 10 7/8 x 7 7/8" (27.6 x 20 cm); sheet: 12 3/4 x 8 3/4" (32.4 x 22.2 cm)

Signature:

"LB" right lower margin, black ink.

Inscription:

Verso: "to Helmut / with Love / Louise" center sheet, black ink, artist's hand; "May 2000" right lower sheet, black ink, artist's hand.

Publisher:

unpublished

Printer:

Harlan & Weaver, New York

Edition:

4 known variant impressions of version 1 of 2, state I

Impression:

Not numbered

Edition Information:

Proof before the editioning of version 2.

State Changes and Additions:

Additions in black ink: horizontal line at base of triangle, anticipating state II; irises filled in, anticipating state II; facial features reinforced; eyebrows.

Background:

The edition of version 2, in lithography on paper, was published as a benefit for Exit Art, New York.

Exit Art, 1982-2012, was an alternative exhibition space known for bringing exposure to emerging artists dealing with sociopolitically challenging work. When Exit Art approached Bourgeois for a contribution to one of their annual Benefit Print Portfolios, Bourgeois chose to create an enlarged lithograph version of the "The Guilty Girl" drypoint composition. According to Bourgeois's assistant, Jerry Gorovoy, Bourgeois may have made the second version because lithography could have been more conducive to printing the multiple colors with which Bourgeois experimented in variants of the drypoint version. Bourgeois may have enlarged the image, as well, due to Exit Art's 30 x 22" standard sheet size for the portfolio.

The portfolio is titled "twoandthreezeros" and it includes 8 prints in an edition of 50 with artists Patty Chang, Peter Hildebrand, Sol LeWitt, Kerry James Marshall, Julie Mehretu, Yigal Ozeri, Shahzia Sikander, and Bourgeois, plus a cover printed by Exit Art co-founder, Papo Colo.

Artist’s Remarks:

"The triangular figure rests on a single point and can easily fall down. Her guilt has nothing to do with religion. There is guilt in not living up to one's highest potential. There is guilt from not being able to make yourself understood. There is guilt in not being a good mother. And there is guilt in not being able to make yourself loved." Bourgeois interviewed by Simona Vendrame. "Tema Celeste" 85 (2001): 49.

Curatorial Remarks:

The plate dimensions of this impression could not be documented because this work is not in MoMA's collection and could not be examined in person. The plate dimensions given are from another impression.

Public Collection:

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY