LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Descriptive Title:

Red Bell Jar

Themes:

Figures, Objects

Techniques:

Drypoint

Description:

Drypoint, with blue ink and pencil additions

Support:

Smooth, wove paper

Dimensions:

plate: 7 15/16 x 5 3/8" (20.2 x 13.6 cm); sheet: 14 1/8 x 8 15/16" (35.8 x 22.7 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unpublished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 XIII.

The 4 impressions of varying states labeled "HC" in red ink, in the artist's hand, are not conventional H.C. impressions, which would be of the final state.

State Changes and Additions:

Additions in blue ink: figure seated on chair, anticipating state II.
Additions in pencil: uprights on staircase bannister, anticipating state II.

Other Remarks:

According to Louise Bourgeois’s assistant, Jerry Gorovoy, the bell jar-like form in “Hair” was not done in conjunction with Bourgeois’s monumental sculptural installation for Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall, in 2000. In that installation, each of three huge steel towers included, within it, a small sculpture depicting a mother and child inside a bell jar. Bourgeois’s print “Do Not Abandon Me,” with similar imagery and seen here in Related Works in the Catalogue, does have a direct relationship to the Tate installation.

MoMA Credit Line:

Gift of the artist

MoMA Accession Number:

824.2008

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY