LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Themes:

Nature

Techniques:

Aquatint, Drypoint, Etching

Description:

Soft ground etching, aquatint, and drypoint

Support:

Smooth, wove paper

Dimensions:

plate: 7 7/8 x 11 15/16" (20 x 30.4 cm); sheet: 9 7/16 x 12 11/16" (24 x 32.3 cm)

Signature:

"LB" lower left margin, pencil.

Inscription:

"laurel easton" lower right margin, pencil, artist's hand. Verso:
"laurel / zinc steel [crossed out] plate/ soft ground / 8 x 12 / 29 [circled]" center sheet, pencil, artist's hand.

Publisher:

unpublished

Printer:

The artist

Edition:

2 known impressions of the only state

Impression:

Not numbered

Background:

The title of this composition refers to the country house in Easton, Connecticut that Bourgeois and her family purchased in 1941; it remains in the family.

Artist’s Remarks:

Bourgeois's grid compositions "classify things in order to control them." Here, as in the "Pinus Sylvestris" greeting card, she analyzed a phenomenon of nature. This print separates the parts of the Laurel. It is very important that it "be complete... that it show the seed, the roots, and the blossoming flower." She described "a passion to look at the fine differences... to find what makes you a specific person." She remembered that the Laurel is the state flower of Connecticut, that there was a lot of it in Easton, and also that it is "the most delicious herb to cook."
Bourgeois remembered having "a lot of trouble because this plate was steel." She "could not get into it." (Quotes cited in Wye, Deborah and Carol Smith. "The Prints of Louise Bourgeois." New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1994, p. 62.)

Curatorial Remarks:

A photocopy of this impression from c. 1989 shows no initials in the lower left margin. These were added c. 1990.

This plate was reprinted in 1990 for possible inclusion in the "Quarantania" portfolio, but rejected due to corrosion of the plate.

Former Cat. No.:

W & S 21

MoMA Credit Line:

Gift of the artist

MoMA Accession Number:

132.1990

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY