LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Themes:

Animals & Insects

Techniques:

Drypoint

Description:

Left and right sides (a and b): drypoint, with red, pink, and black ink, pencil, blue carbon, and white correction fluid additions

Support:

Smooth, wove paper

Dimensions:

plate (each): 13 7/8 x 9 15/16" (35.2 x 25.3 cm); sheet: 17 5/16 x 22 7/16" (44 x 57 cm)

Signature:

Not signed

Publisher:

unpublished

Printer:

Harlan & Weaver, New York

Edition:

5 known diptychs, outside the edition

Impression:

Not numbered

Edition Information:

Proof before the editioning of Diptych 6, seen below in the Evolving Composition Diagram and comprising: left side (a): version 1, state VII, and right side (b): version 2, state VIII. This composition was also issued as a published edition at version 3, state II, titled "Le Chat."

Diptychs outside the edition are combinations of the first and second versions of this composition, at various states.

State Changes and Additions:

Left side (a): Version 1, state I, variant
Additions in blue carbon and pencil: tail and cat’s right rear leg reconfigured with exposed anus, anticipating state II.

Right side (b): Version 2, state I, variant
Changes from version 1: version 1, state I composition inverted and transferred to a new, identically sized plate, in drypoint.

Background:

In the 1950s, when Bourgeois was living with her husband and children in an apartment on 18th Street in New York City, the family had two cats: Champfleurette and Tyger.

Curatorial Remarks:

Although the development of the Male and Female diptych has been divided into first and second versions for clarity, Bourgeois worked on both plates concurrently.

Other Remarks:

According to printer Felix Harlan, the third, smaller version in the Evolving Composition Diagram was initially created as a test plate. Aquatint was being considered to add shading to the male cat. Ultimately, Bourgeois decided against aquatint for the shading, but she liked the compositional fragment on the test plate. She added the contour of the cat's body and editioned this version as "Le Chat" on handmade paper.

MoMA Credit Line:

Gift of the artist

MoMA Accession Number:

1509.2008

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY