Cat. No. 124/VI, variant 1
Hair
- State/Variant:
- State VI of XIII, variant
- Date:
- 1999
- Descriptive Title:
-
Red Bell Jar
- Themes:
- Body Parts, Figures, Objects
- Techniques:
- Drypoint, Other
- Description:
- Drypoint and blue monotype, with blue and red ink, and white gouache additions
- Support:
- Smooth, wove paper
- Dimensions:
- plate: 7 15/16 x 5 5/16" (20.2 x 13.5 cm); sheet: 12 x 7 1/2" (30.5 x 19 cm)
- Signature:
- "LB 99" lower right margin, red ink.
- Publisher:
- unpublished
- Printer:
- Harlan & Weaver, New York
- Edition:
- 2 known variant impressions of state VI
- 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 V in drypoint: figure's hair further delineated and interior oval on platform floor reinforced.
Additions in blue ink: bottom staircase uprights and spindles delineated, anticipating state VIII; background areas covered with swirling strokes.
Additions in red ink: spindles at top of staircase delineated; platform base extended to bottom of plate and interior oval on platform floor reinforced, all anticipating state VIII; upper railing and bell jar-like form contours reinforced.
Additions in white gouache: platform base near bottom masked out. - 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:
- 829.2008
© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY



























