LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Themes:

Abstraction, Fabric Works, Nature

Techniques:

Etching

Description:

panel (a): Soft ground etching, with hand additions
panel (b): Fabric collage
panel (c): Soft ground etching, with hand additions

Support:

3 attached panels:
panel (a): Fabric
panel (b): Fabric
panel (c): Paper

Dimensions:

plate (a): 60 1/4 × 35 11/16" (153.1 × 90.6 cm); plate (c): 55 1/2 × 14 3/4" (141 × 37.5 cm); sheet (overall): 59 1/2 × 71 1/4" (151.1 × 181 cm)

Signature:

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

Publisher:

Osiris, New York

Printer:

Wingate Studio, Hinsdale, NH

Edition:

Unique

Impression:

Not numbered

State Changes and Additions:

Matrices:
This 3-panel work is made up of 2 plates and 1 fabric panel. The plates were issued as 2 separate editions, which are noted below and can be seen in Related Works in the Catalogue.

panel (a): plate from "The Stretch"
Plate printed twice, once in red ink and once in black.

panel (c): plate from "Opening Up"

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.

Curatorial Remarks:

The paper type and mediums of the hand additions 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 of "The Stretch" and "Opening Up" in MoMA's Collection. The overall sheet dimensions were provided by the Louise Bourgeois Studio.

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY