LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Alternate Title:

Slipping Away

Themes:

Body Parts

Techniques:

Etching

Description:

panel (a): Soft ground etching, with red watercolor additions
panel (b): Pencil
panel (c): Soft ground etching, with red watercolor additions

Support:

Paper (3 attached sheets)

Dimensions:

plate (each): 55 13/16 × 15 5/16" (141.8 × 38.9 cm) (dimensions reflect full plate size; these are partial prints); sheet (overall): 54 1/2 × 64 3/4" (138.4 × 164.5 cm)

Signature:

panel (a): "Louise Bourgeois." lower center comp., pencil.
panel (c): "LB" lower right comp., pencil.

Inscription:

panel (b): "EXTREME / TENSION!!!" 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 4 unique variants that incorporate this plate, printed alone or in combination with another plate in a multi-panel work. When the plate is used 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:
"Extreme Tension!!!"
"Extreme Tension!!"
Untitled, no. 6 of 11, from the series, "Extreme Tension"

See Related Works in the Catalogue:
"À Qui La Faute"

"Slipping Away" was not issued as a published edition. There are 2 known cancellation proofs, 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.

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY