LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Descriptive Title:

Red Bell Jar

Themes:

Body Parts, Figures, Objects

Techniques:

Drypoint

Description:

Drypoint, with red ink and pencil additions

Support:

Smooth, wove paper

Dimensions:

plate: 7 15/16 x 5 5/16" (20.2 x 13.5 cm); sheet: 11 1/8 x 8 3/8" (28.2 x 21.3 cm)

Signature:

"LB" lower right margin, red ink.

Inscription:

Verso: "Success is / sexy" bottom center sheet, red ink, artist's hand; "LANIER" lower right sheet, red ink, artist's hand.

Publisher:

unpublished

Printer:

Harlan & Weaver, New York

Edition:

1 known impression of state III

Impression:

"HC" lower left margin, red ink, artist's hand.

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:

Changes from state II in drypoint: figure's hair further delineated, vertically.
Additions in red ink: staircase extended, anticipating state V; circular knob added on top of bell jar-like form and platform extended, both anticipating state VII; spindles added to staircase, anticipating state VIII; figure's legs lengthened, anticipating state IV; corners shaded.
Additions in pencil: platform base further delineated, anticipating state VII.

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:

826.2008

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY