LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Themes:

Abstraction, Fabric Works, Nature

Techniques:

Etching

Description:

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

Support:

panels (a) and (b): Paper
panel (c): Two pieces of fabric mounted on paper

Dimensions:

plate (each): 55 1/8 × 7 7/8" (140 × 20 cm); sheet (approx.): 60 × 72" (152.4 × 182.9 cm)

Signature:

panel (c): "LB" lower right comp., stitched in red thread.

Inscription:

panel (b): "The leaves tremble / but / the roots are deep / and strong" 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 20 unique variants outside the edition to incorporate this plate, printed alone or in combination with other plates in multi-panel works. They all include extensive hand additions and sometimes partial inking of the plate. When the plate is used alone (sometimes printed twice on the same sheet), 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:
“Couple”
“Swaying”
“Swaying”
“Swaying”
“Swaying”
"Swaying"
"Swaying"
“Tous Les Deux (Swaying)”
Untitled, plate 1 of 5, from the illustrated book, “Duration and Intensité”
Untitled, no. 2 of 3, from the series, "Evening of My Life"
"Where My Motivation Comes From"

See Related Works in the Catalogue:
“Eccentric Growth I”
“Eccentric Growth II”
“Eccentric Growth III”
“Eccentric Growth IV”
“Eccentric Growth V”
“Eccentric Growth VI”
("Eccentric Growth VII" was destroyed by the artist)
“Eccentric Growth VIII”
“Eccentric Growth IX”
Untitled, no. 4 of 4, from the series, "Inner Truths or Outer Truths"

About the "Swaying" edition:
Within the edition, selective wiping varies slightly from impression to impression. There is 1 known impression of the only state outside the edition.

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