LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Themes:

Abstraction, Animals & Insects, Nature

Techniques:

Lithography

Description:

Photolithograph

Support:

Smooth, wove paper

Dimensions:

composition: 12 3/8 x 8 1/4" (31.5 x 21 cm); sheet: 17 15/16 x 11 3/16" (45 x 28.4 cm)

Signature:

"Louise Bourgeois" lower right margin, pencil.

Publisher:

Galerie Maeght Lelong, Paris

Printer:

Atelier Lelong, Paris

Edition:

100 plus several of A.P. and H.C.

Impression:

"25/100" lower left margin, pencil, unknown hand.

Edition Information:

The publisher was consulted and does not have records of the exact number of signed A.P. and H.C. impressions.

Version 2 of this composition was published in 1985.

Background:

Galerie Maeght Lelong, Paris, issued a signed edition of version 1 in conjunction with the 1984 exhibition "Louise Bourgeois Retrospective 1947-84." The following year, version 2 was issued in an edition with printed signature and was included in the exhibition catalogue, which was released as part of a Galerie Maeght Lelong publication series: "repères: cahiers d'art contemporain, no. 19."

The composition "Sheaves," seen below in Related Works in the Catalogue, was also issued in 2 corresponding editions for the aforementioned exhibition.

Artist’s Remarks:

"This is like a snake plant ... darting from one place to another. It is full of sproutings that point up ... that will start others. It has a fantastic inner life ... ready to spring ... so impetuous and strong, but also erratic ... At the right is a little animal, a yellow jacket. A yellow jacket can smell fear. If it is attacked, or thinks it will be attacked, it will dart." (Quote cited in Wye, Deborah and Carol Smith. "The Prints of Louise Bourgeois." New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1994, p. 152.)

Former Cat. No.:

W & S 78

MoMA Credit Line:

Gift of the artist

MoMA Accession Number:

258.1992

This Work in Other Collections:

Albertina, Vienna
Rowan University Art Gallery, Sylvia Sleigh Collection, NJ
Spencer Museum of Art, The University of Kansas, Lawrence
Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München in der Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY