LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Alternate Title:

The Needle

Descriptive Title:

English translation: "The Reparation"

Themes:

Objects

Techniques:

Drypoint

Description:

Drypoint, with red ink, white correction fluid, and pencil additions

Support:

Smooth, wove paper

Dimensions:

plate: 10 13/16 x 8 3/8" (27.5 x 21.3 cm); sheet: 14 3/16 x 10 11/16" (36 x 27.2 cm)

Signature:

Not signed

Inscription:

Verso: "Les outils de la Tapissiere. / souvenir de Aubusson." lower center sheet, red ink, artist's hand.

Publisher:

unpublished

Printer:

Harlan & Weaver, New York

Edition:

1 known impression of state I

Impression:

Not numbered

Edition Information:

Proof before the editioning of state IV.

State Changes and Additions:

Additions in white correction fluid: lines in two pliers covered, anticipating state II.

Artist’s Remarks:

"My mother would sit out in the sun and repair a tapestry or a petit point. She really loved it. This sense of reparation is very deep within me.
I break everything I touch because I am violent. I destroy my friendships, my love, my children. People would not generally suspect it, but the cruelty is there in the work. I break things because I am afraid and I spend my time repairing. I am a sadist because I am afraid. Yet the reconciliations between people never really stick." (Quote cited in Meyer-Thoss, Christiane. "Louise Bourgeois: Designing for Free Fall." Zurich: Ammann, 1992, p. 187.)

Installation Remarks:

The prints in this portfolio can be shown as a group, or individually.

Other Remarks:

According to Bourgeois's assistant Jerry Gorovoy, the artist sometimes used pliers to push her threaded needle through the thick fabric of her stuffed sculptures. An example is included in Related Works in Other Mediums below. Gorovoy also noted that Bourgeois may have traced actual tools to create this composition, similiarly to how she traced common household objects to develop the 2006 print series, "Lullaby."

MoMA Credit Line:

Gift of the artist

MoMA Accession Number:

1120.2008

This Work in Other Collections:

Tate Modern, London (state IV)

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY