LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Descriptive Title:

Birth

Themes:

Figures, Motherhood & Family

Techniques:

Drypoint

Description:

Drypoint, with blue and black ink additions

Support:

Smooth, wove paper

Dimensions:

plate: 9 7/16 x 7 3/16" (23.9 x 18.3 cm); sheet: 13 3/4 x 12 5/8" (35 x 32 cm)

Signature:

Not signed

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unpublished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 III.

State Changes and Additions:

Additions in blue ink: mother’s hair thickened, mother’s hands, feet, and breasts further delineated, baby’s eyelashes and ear further delineated, all anticipating state II.
Additions in black ink: mother’s hair thickened, anticipating state II.

Background:

Bourgeois was often inspired by the subjects of early drawings when creating works at much later dates. This 1994 portfolio is an example of a project based primarily on drawings from the 1940s and referring to her life in New York at that time. The exceptions are as follows: plate 1, based on a drawing from 1986 that references childbirth; plates 4 and 9, based on drawings from the 1940s but depicting memories of her childhood years in France; plate 11, most probably based on a drawing from the 1940s of a European hotel desk.

Curatorial Remarks:

Of the 14 plates in "Autobiographical Series," Bourgeois titled plates 6 and 12. The untitled plates have been assigned descriptive titles for cataloguing purposes.

MoMA Credit Line:

Gift of the artist

MoMA Accession Number:

602.1996

This Work in Other Collections:

Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland
Museu da Gravura Cidade de Curitiba, Brazil
Tate Modern, London

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY