
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION
Cat. No. 1105, unique variant 3
La Mère
- State/Variant:
- Only state, unique variant
- Date:
- 2009
- Descriptive Title:
-
English translation: "The Mother"
- Themes:
- Abstraction, Figures, Motherhood & Family
- Techniques:
- Etching
- Description:
- Etching, with red watercolor and pencil additions.
- Support:
- Paper
- Dimensions:
- plate (plate dimensions reflect full plate size; this is a partial print): 34 13/16 × 31 11/16" (88.5 × 80.5 cm); sheet: 34 1/2 × 17 7/8" (87.6 × 45.4 cm)
- Signature:
- "LB" right lower comp., pencil.
- Inscription:
- “la / mère” written vertically, lower right comp., pencil, artist’s hand.
- Publisher:
- Osiris, New York
- Printer:
- Wingate Studio, Hinsdale, NH
- Edition:
- Unique variant
- Impression:
- Not numbered
- Edition Information:
- Not issued as a published edition. However, there is one known impression and three unique variants (one in the series, "Le Matin Rouge"). All can be seen in the Evolving Composition Diagram below.
In this composition, the plate is partially printed, with only the lower right portion visible. - 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