LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Themes:

Abstraction, Animals & Insects, Figures, Nature

Techniques:

Etching

Description:

Series of 3 compositions: 6 soft ground etchings, with watercolor, gouache, ink, colored pencil, and pencil additions

Support:

See individual.

Dimensions:

Plate and sheet sizes vary. See individual.

Signature:

See individual.

Publisher:

Osiris, New York

Printer:

Wingate Studio, Hinsdale, NH

Edition:

Unique

Impression:

Not numbered

Background:

Benjamin Shiff, the director of the Osiris imprint, collaborated with Bourgeois in a highly experimental phase of printmaking that occupied the last years of her life, from 2005 to 2010. He first established a working relationship with the artist in the 1990s, but the late period is particularly noteworthy for the innovative and complex large-scale projects that evolved at that time. Shiff made use of professional workshops for printing, but he oversaw the creation of the printing plates as Bourgeois worked on them in her home studio. He also provided assistance as she added extensive hand additions and texts, and as she combined individual compositions into multi-panel works and illustrated books.

Installation Remarks:

This series of 3 compositions constitutes a single work of art. All of these compositions are to be exhibited together in the indicated sequence.

Curatorial Remarks:

The hand additions and paper type on individual sheets throughout the series could not be documented because this work is not in MoMA's Collection and could not be examined in person. The plate dimensions are from impressions in MoMA's Collection. The overall mediums and sheet dimensions for the series were provided by the Louise Bourgeois Studio.

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY