LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Alternate Title:

Personage Top Heavy

Themes:

Abstraction, Figures, Nature

Techniques:

Etching

Description:

Soft ground etching, with selective wiping, and pencil and conté crayon additions

Support:

Smooth, wove paper

Dimensions:

plate: 6 15/16 x 5 3/8" (17.6 x 13.6 cm); sheet: 10 1/16 x 6 7/8" (25 x 17.4 cm)

Signature:

"Louise Bourgeois" lower right margin, pencil.

Inscription:

"état 2" lower right margin, pencil, artist's hand. Verso: "personage / top heavy / soft ground" center sheet, pencil, artist's hand.

Publisher:

unpublished

Printer:

The artist at Atelier 17, New York

Edition:

1 known impression of state II

Impression:

Not numbered

Edition Information:

Not issued as a published edition at any state.

State Changes and Additions:

Changes from state I, in etching: further bubble-like texture added to background.

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 59

MoMA Credit Line:

Gift of the artist

MoMA Accession Number:

156.1990.2

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY