LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Alternate Title:

Interior; Drawing at a Table

Themes:

Animals & Insects, Architecture, Figures, Nature, Objects

Techniques:

Lithography

Description:

Lithograph

Support:

Smooth, wove Rives paper

Dimensions:

composition: 8 1/16 x 10 13/16" (20.4 x 27.5 cm); sheet: 11 7/16 x 15 3/8" (29.1 x 39 cm)

Signature:

"L Bourgeois" lower right margin, pencil.

Inscription:

The alternate title "Interior" derives from an inscription on an impression of version 2, only state, not in MoMA's Collection and not included in the Evolving Composition Diagram below.

Publisher:

The artist

Printer:

The Art Students League of New York

Edition:

13

Impression:

"4/10" lower left margin, pencil, artist's hand; "4/12" lower right margin, pencil, artist's hand.

Edition Information:

Although there are 13 known impressions of version 2, only state, this impression is numbered 4/10 and 4/12, and others are numbered: 1/4, 2/12, 3/12, 7/12, 8/12, 9/12, 10/12, 11/12, 12/12, 13/12, 14/12, and 5/15.

State Changes and Additions:

Changes from version 1: image transferred to new matrix in lithograpihc crayon exclusively; far wall reconfigured; figure's right hand eliminated; flowers in vase, feather, table top, figure's shirt, shadows, floor patterns, seat of chair, landscape, animal in landscape, all altered.

Background:

American painter and printmaker, Will Barnet (1911-2012) was the master printer at The Art Students League and printed Bourgeois's lithographs.

Artist’s Remarks:

In referring to her early prints of people and interiors, Bourgeois said: “I love portraits. I never used a camera. This was my way of recording my life.” (Quote cited in Wye, Deborah and Carol Smith. "The Prints of Louise Bourgeois." New York: The Musem of Modern Art, 1994, p. 48)

Curatorial Remarks:

The alternate title, "Drawing at a Table," comes from the brochure checklist of a 1992 exhibition at the Susan Teller Gallery, New York, titled, "Printed by Will Barnet."

The alternate title, "Interior One Child," is cited in Wye and Smith, "The Prints of Louise Bourgeois," 1994, but could not be further substantiated. It has been dropped from the documentation of this print.

Former Cat. No.:

W & S 13.2

MoMA Credit Line:

Gift of the artist

MoMA Accession Number:

122.1990

This Work in Other Collections:

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY