LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Descriptive Title:

English translation: "Paper Fluttering in the Wind"

Themes:

Abstraction, Nature

Techniques:

Drypoint, Engraving

Description:

State II (right): Engraving and drypoint, with scorper; State III (left): Engraving and drypoint, with scorper

Support:

Smooth, laid paper

Dimensions:

plate (each): 6 15/16 × 3 1/16" (17.6 × 7.7 cm); sheet: 8 11/16 × 13 1/16" (22 × 33.2 cm)

Signature:

"L Bourgeois" lower middle margin (right side), pencil.

Publisher:

unpublished

Printer:

The artist at Atelier 17, New York

Edition:

1 known impression of state II (right); 1 known impression of state III (left)

Impression:

Not numbered

Edition Information:

Not issued as a published edition at any state.

State Changes and Additions:

State II (right):
Changes from state I, in engraving: contour lines added around large crescent at center and short vertical line at crescent’s right end joined to curving line above.
Changes from state I, by scorper: small crescent shape gouged from lower right composition.

State III (left):
Changes from state II, in engraving: curved “V” form added to center composition.

Artist’s Remarks:

This is about "germination" and the "serenity of the pregnant woman... This is a happy mood... I have lots of friends. But, later, the black mood will come... I do not deserve to be happy... to be a mother. I do not deserve friends." (Quote cited in Wye, Deborah and Carol Smith. “The Prints of Louise Bourgeois.” New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1994, p. 124.)

Curatorial Remarks:

In the second half of the 1940s, Bourgeois spent time at Atelier 17, the print workshop of Stanley William Hayter. The workshop had transferred operations from Paris to New York during the war years. It is not known precisely which prints she made at the workshop since she also worked at home on a small press. The designation of “the artist at Atelier 17” as printer means that the impression was likely made at the workshop. The designation is based on dates, inscriptions, techniques favored at Atelier 17, and/or stylistic similarities to images in the illustrated book “He Disappeared into Complete Silence,” which the artist repeatedly cited as having been made at Atelier 17. It is also possible that Bourgeois worked on certain plates both at home and at the workshop, or pulled impressions at both places.

Former Cat. No.:

W & S 54

MoMA Credit Line:

Gift of the artist

MoMA Accession Number:

150.1990.1

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY