LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Descriptive Title:

English translation: "Jealous"

Themes:

Abstraction, Fabric Works

Techniques:

Etching

Description:

panel (a): Soft ground etching, with hand additions
panel (b): Pencil with mixed media
panel (c): Soft ground ethings, with hand additions

Support:

panel (a): Fabric
panel (b): Paper
panel (c): Fabric mounted on paper

Dimensions:

plate (a and c) (each): 60 1/4 × 18 13/16" (153 × 47.8 cm); plate (c): 59 7/8 × 16 3/4" (152.1 × 42.6 cm); sheet (approx.): 60 1/2 × 88" (153.7 × 223.5 cm)

Signature:

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

Inscription:

panel (b): "Too much is / too much / what to do / why you / you are as I am" center sheet, pencil, artist's hand.

Publisher:

Osiris, New York

Printer:

Wingate Studio, Hinsdale, NH

Edition:

Unique

Impression:

Not numbered

State Changes and Additions:

Matrices:
This 3-panel composition is made up of 2 plates that were issued as separate editions. They are noted below and can be seen in Related Works in the Catalogue.

panel (a): plate from "The Twist"

panel (c): plates from "Passages" and "The Twist"
"Passages" is printed on sheer fabric that overlaps "The Twist" printed on paper.

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 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.

On the text panel, hand additions are applied like a correction fluid to cover unwanted marks.

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY