Cat. No. 247/VI, variant 1
Umbilical Cord
- State/Variant:
- State VI of IX, variant
- Date:
- 2000
- Themes:
- Figures, Motherhood & Family
- Techniques:
- Drypoint, Engraving
- Description:
- Engraving and drypoint, with red stencil, gray watercolor, and red ink additions
- Support:
- Smooth, wove Hahnemühle paper
- Dimensions:
- plate: 10 7/8 x 8 3/8" (27.7 x 21.3 cm); sheet: 15 1/2 x 11 1/8" (39.3 x 28.3 cm)
- Signature:
- "LB" lower right margin, pencil.
- Publisher:
- unpublished
- Printer:
- Harlan & Weaver, New York
- Edition:
- 2 known variant impressions of state VI
- Impression:
- Not numbered
- Edition Information:
- Proof before the editioning of state VIII on fabric.
- State Changes and Additions:
- Changes from state V in drypoint: female figure's hair further delineated.
Additions by stencil: female figure's body filled in.
Additions in gray watercolor: female figure's hair and baby's hair reinforced, anticipating state VII. - Background:
- "Umbilical Cord" relates to a monumental installation for the inaugural exhibition in Tate Modern's Turbine Hall in 2000. The installation consisted of "Maman," a 30' steel sculpture of a spider, and "I Do, I Undo, I Redo," three steel towers ranging in height from 42' to 57'. Each tower contained a different sculpture of a mother and child inside a bell jar. The sculpture in the tower titled, "I Redo," featured a mother and child attached by an umbilical cord. Bourgeois also made another related print called "Do Not Abandon Me," 2000, which includes a similar mother and child.
- MoMA Credit Line:
- Gift of the artist
- MoMA Accession Number:
- 1461.2008
© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY