Cat. No. 439/I
Untitled, plate 10 of 14, from the portfolio, Autobiographical Series
- State/Variant:
- State I of III
- Date:
- 1993
- Alternate Title:
-
Mirror
- Descriptive Title:
-
Woman in Bathtub
- Themes:
- Faces & Portraits, Figures, Objects
- Techniques:
- Drypoint
- Description:
- Drypoint, with pencil additions
- Support:
- Smooth, wove paper
- Dimensions:
- plate: 10 7/8 x 8 1/2" (27.7 x 21.6 cm); sheet: 16 7/8 x 13" (42.8 x 33 cm)
- Signature:
- Not signed
- Inscription:
- Verso: "what a mirror can do!" lower center sheet, red ink, artist's hand.
- Publisher:
- unpublished
- Printer:
- Harlan & Weaver, New York
- Edition:
- 1 known impression of state I
- Impression:
- Not numbered
- Edition Information:
- Proof before the editioning of state III.
- State Changes and Additions:
- Additions in pencil: mirror further delineated in upper right composition, surface of bath water further delineated in lower left and lower right composition, all anticipating state II.
- 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.
- 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.
- MoMA Credit Line:
- Gift of the artist
- MoMA Accession Number:
- 639.2008
- This Work in Other Collections:
- Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland
Museu da Gravura Cidade de Curitiba, Brazil
Tate Modern, London
© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY