LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Alternate Title:

Blue Bed; Bed #2; Le Lit...Fond Bleu (The Bed...Blue Background)

Descriptive Title:

English translation: "The Big Blue Bed Quilt"

Themes:

Architecture, Body Parts, Figures, Objects

Techniques:

Aquatint, Drypoint, Engraving, Etching

Description:

Soft ground etching, aquatint, drypoint, and engraving

Support:

Smooth, wove Somerset paper

Dimensions:

plate: 19 13/16 x 26 7/8" (50.3 x 68.2 cm); sheet: 24 13/16 x 31 1/2" (63 x 80 cm)

Signature:

Not signed

Publisher:

unpublished

Printer:

Harlan & Weaver, New York

Edition:

1 known impression of version 3, state VII

Impression:

Not numbered

Edition Information:

Proof before the editioning of version 3, state X. This composition was also issued as published editions at version 2, state IV and version 3, state XI.

State Changes and Additions:

Matrices:
It appears that the progression of version 3, as seen in the Evolving Composition Diagram below, involved 4 plates. The exact combinations of plates used for impressions before the editioning of state X and state XI could not be determined.

State Changes:
Changes from version 2: composition reconfigured and transferred to a new plate, in soft ground etching.
Changes from version 3, state VI, in aquatint: shading added overall.

Background:

Version 2, state IV of this composition was published as a benefit for the Rivington House branch of Village Care of New York (previously Village Center for Care). Version 3, state XI of this composition was published as a benefit for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

Artist’s Remarks:

Inscribed on the verso of the source drawing: "Aug 20th Wardrobe Series / Les dessin de lit ne sont pas mal, mais des sacs de matelas seraient mieux, dessins de lit, the more, the better. Ce dessin n'est pas assez exact."

"Two things you count in one's erotic life: dinner table and bed. The table where your parents made you suffer. And the bed where you lie with your husband, where your children were born and you will die. Essentially, since they are about the same size, they are the same object." (Quote cited in Munro, Eleanor. "Originals: American Women Artists." New York: Simon and Schuster,1979, pp. 154-9.)

Other Remarks:

According to the artist's assistant, Jerry Gorovoy, the subject of beds stems not only from their symbolic resonance for Bourgeois but also from her interest in their geometric and architectural forms. The bed motif is found in Bourgeois's drawings, sculptures, and installations, as well as in her prints (see Related Works in Other Mediums).

According to Wendy Williams of the Louise Bourgeois Studio, this composition was the source for the plaster and steel sculpture, "Arched Couple," 1999, seen below in Related Works in Other Mediums.

MoMA Credit Line:

Gift of the artist

MoMA Accession Number:

40.1998

This Work in Other Collections:

Minneapolis Institute of Art, MN
National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY