LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Descriptive Title:

Red Bell Jar

Themes:

Body Parts, Figures, Objects

Techniques:

Drypoint

Description:

Drypoint, with red ink and white gouache additions

Support:

Smooth, wove Somerset paper

Dimensions:

plate: 7 15/16 x 5 5/16" (20.2 x 13.5 cm); sheet: 14 9/16 x 9 15/16" (37 x 25.3 cm)

Signature:

"LB" lower right margin, red ink.

Publisher:

unpublished

Printer:

Harlan & Weaver, New York

Edition:

1 known impression of state VII

Impression:

"HC" lower left, 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 VI in drypoint: knob at top of bell jar-like form delineated; platform base extended to bottom of plate.
Additions in red ink: spindles on staircases delineated, anticipating state VIII; knob at top of bell jar-like form filled in, anticipating state XI; platform base, interior oval on platform floor, figure, chair, upper railing, bell jar-like form, figure's vertical hair, all reinforced.
Additions in white gouache: errant line at lower middle covered over, anticipating state X.

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:

831.2008

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY