LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Alternate Title:

Accumulations

Themes:

Abstraction, Nature

Techniques:

Etching

Description:

panel (a): Soft ground etching, with hand additions
panel (b): Soft ground etching, with hand additions
panel (c): Pencil
panel (d): Soft ground etching, with hand additions

Support:

Paper

Dimensions:

plate (each): 55 3/4 × 12 3/8" (141.6 × 31.5 cm); sheet (approx.): 59 1/4 × 77 3/4" (150.5 × 197.5 cm)

Signature:

panel (a): "Louise Bourgeois" lower right margin, pencil.
panel (d): "LB" right lower margin, pencil.

Inscription:

panel (c): "echo of the morning / the return of the light" center sheet, pencil, artist's hand.

Publisher:

Osiris, New York

Printer:

Wingate Studio, Hinsdale, NH

Edition:

Unique

Impression:

Not numbered

Edition Information:

This is one of 7 unique variants of state II outside the edition, printed alone or in combination with other plates in multi-panel works. When the plate is printed alone, the work is included in the Evolving Composition Diagram. When it is printed with another plate, it is included in Related Works in the Catalogue.

See Evolving Composition Diagram:
"Accumulations"
"Accumulations"
Untitled, plates 2 and 3 of 9, from the illustrated book, "Differentiate"
Untitled, plate 2 of 5, from the illustrated book, "Duration and Intensité"
Untitled, no. 1 of 3, from the series, "Evening of My Life"
Untitled, no. 1 of 3, from the series, "This Need"

See Related Works in the Catalogue:
Untitled, no. 2 of 4, from the series, "Inner Truths or Outer Truths"

About the "Accumulations" edition:
The edition is made up of impressions of state II and III.
State II: 1/7, 3/7, 7/7
State III: 2/7, 6/7
Nos. 4/7 and 5/7 could not be examined in person and their states are not known.

Selective wiping varies from impression to impression; see examples in the Evolving Composition Diagram below. The sheet sizes also vary. There is 1 known variant impression of state II and 1 known impression of state III, both outside the edition. There are 2 known cancellation proofs of state III, each with a large "X" drawn across the composition from each corner of the plate.

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 composition is one of 3 that constitute a single work of art. All of the compositions are to be exhibited together in the indicated sequence.

Curatorial Remarks:

The hand additions and paper type 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 an impression 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