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LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Louise Bourgeois: Complete Books & Prints
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Cat. No. 434/IX

Untitled, plate 5 of 14, from the portfolio, Autobiographical Series

State/Variant:
State IX of IX
Date:
1994
Portfolio:
Autobiographical Series (View All)
Alternate Title:
Tub; Hazing
Descriptive Title:
Children in Tub
Themes:
Architecture, Figures, Motherhood & Family, Objects
Techniques:
Aquatint, Drypoint
Description:
Drypoint and aquatint
Support:
Smooth, wove Somerset paper
Dimensions:
plate: 4 1/4 x 5 7/16" (10.8 x 13.8 cm); sheet: 18 7/8 x 13 9/16" (48 x 34.5 cm)
Signature:
"LB" lower right margin, pencil.
Publisher:
Peter Blum Edition, New York
Printer:
Harlan & Weaver, New York
Edition:
35; plus 10 H.C.
Impression:
"III/X" lower left margin, pencil, unknown hand.
Edition Information:
There is 1 known impression of state IX, outside the edition, in MoMA's Collection (Accession Number: 632.2008). It is not illustrated, due to its similiarity to the impression seen here.
State Changes and Additions:
Changes from state VIII, in aquatint: tone added on floor and walls where previously burnished.
Background:
Bourgeois was often inspired by the subjects of early drawings when creating works at much later dates. This 1994 portfolio is an example of a project based primarily on drawings from the 1940s and referring to her life in New York at that time. The exceptions are as follows: plate 1, based on a drawing from 1986 that references childbirth; plates 4 and 9, based on drawings from the 1940s but depicting memories of her childhood years in France; plate 11, most probably based on a drawing from the 1940s of a European hotel desk.
Artist’s Remarks:
Bourgeois remembered this composition as related to an apartment where she and her family lived when her children were small. Bourgeois said, "This is the bathroom at 18th Street. Everything is exactly the same... the cabinet... the tub with feet... it is very accurate.
I'm asked all the time... but I never say... it was a lot of work to get through the day.... It was really something to have three children and also try to work. It was a lot of physical work. I could never carry a child, even when they were very little... I had to have ways to hoist them. So here they help each other. They are happy... it is very tender." (Quotes cited in Wye, Deborah and Carol Smith. "The Prints of Louise Bourgeois." New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1994, p. 234.)
Installation Remarks:
The prints in this portfolio can be shown as a group or individually. There is no required sequence.
Curatorial Remarks:
Of the 14 plates in "Autobiographical Series," Bourgeois titled plates 6 and 12. The untitled plates have been assigned descriptive titles for cataloguing purposes.

The alternate titles "Tub" and "Hazing" were given by the artist, as cited in Wye and Smith, The Prints of Louise Bourgeois, 1994, p. 234.

The apartment where Bourgeois and her family lived at 142 E 18th Street was financed by Rutherford Stuyvesant and designed by Richard Morris Hunt in 1870. It is considered the first apartment building in New York City, built during a time when the lower classes lived in tenements and the upper classes lived in townhouses. Stuyvesant modeled his building after Parisian apartment houses in an attempt to appeal to an emerging middle class. His idea was first considered "folly" but soon turned the tide toward apartment living. Bourgeois referred to this apartment home as "Stuyvesant's Folly," as seen on the inscription on the source drawing.
Bibliography:
Malbert, Roger, and Juliet Mitchell. "Louise Bourgeois: Autobiographical Prints." London: Hayward, 2016. (Catalogue accompanying the touring exhibition "Louise Bourgeois Prints: Autobiographical Series and 11 Drypoints".)
MoMA Credit Line:
Gift of the artist
MoMA Accession Number:
74.1997.5
This Work in Other Collections:
Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland
Museu da Gravura Cidade de Curitiba, Brazil
Tate Modern, London

Untitled, plate 5 of 14, from the portfolio, Autobiographical Series
1993-1994

Source
1945

NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Louise Bourgeois. Untitled. 1945
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Untitled
Charcoal and ink on paper
1945

States

Louise Bourgeois. Untitled, plate 5 of 14, from the portfolio, Autobiographical Series. 1993
State I of IX
1993
Louise Bourgeois. Untitled, plate 5 of 14, from the portfolio, Autobiographical Series. 1993
State II of IX
1993
Louise Bourgeois. Untitled, plate 5 of 14, from the portfolio, Autobiographical Series. 1993
State II of IX, variant
1993
Louise Bourgeois. Untitled, plate 5 of 14, from the portfolio, Autobiographical Series. 1993
State III of IX
1993
Louise Bourgeois. Untitled, plate 5 of 14, from the portfolio, Autobiographical Series. 1993
State IV of IX
1993
Louise Bourgeois. Untitled, plate 5 of 14, from the portfolio, Autobiographical Series. 1993
State IV of IX, variant
1993
Louise Bourgeois. Untitled, plate 5 of 14, from the portfolio, Autobiographical Series. 1993
State V of IX
1993
Louise Bourgeois. Untitled, plate 5 of 14, from the portfolio, Autobiographical Series. 1993
State VI of IX
1993
Louise Bourgeois. Untitled, plate 5 of 14, from the portfolio, Autobiographical Series. 1993
State VII of IX
1993
Louise Bourgeois. Untitled, plate 5 of 14, from the portfolio, Autobiographical Series. 1994
State VIII of IX
1994
Published Louise Bourgeois. Untitled, plate 5 of 14, from the portfolio, Autobiographical Series. 1994
State IX of IX
1994

Portfolio
1994

Louise Bourgeois. Autobiographical Series. 1994
Autobiographical Series
1994
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