LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Themes:

Abstraction, Nature

Techniques:

Etching

Description:

Soft ground etching

Support:

Slightly textured, wove paper

Dimensions:

plate (overall): 55 13/16 × 29 3/4" (141.7 × 75.5 cm); sheet: 61 15/16 x 33 11/16" (157.3 x 85.5 cm)

Signature:

"Louise Bourgeois" lower right margin, pencil.

Inscription:

"première épreuve" lower left margin, pencil, artist's hand.

Publisher:

unpublished

Printer:

Wingate Studio, Hinsdale, NH

Edition:

1 known impression of the only state, outside the edition

Impression:

Not numbered

Edition Information:

Proof before the editioning of the only state of "The Smell of Eucalyptus (#1)".

The works in the Evolving Composition Diagram below involve two tall vertical plates, A and B. The plates were printed individually, and side by side in different layouts. The plates printed singly are organized in rows according to which plate is used. The impressions with both plates are organized into 2 versions according to the layout of the plates.

In the first version, the layout shows the leaves pointing out toward the edges of the sheet. In the second version, the layout shows the leaves pointing in toward the center of the sheet. The third version is a multi-panel work with an impression of the first version alongside impressions of plates A and B.

These varying works were issued in 3 separate editions and as unique variants, all listed below and seen in the Evolving Composition Diagram. (For the unique variants, the artist sometimes changed the orientation of the sheet from that seen in the editions.)

Editions:
Plates A and B: "Sheaves"
First Version: "The Smell of Eucalyptus (#1)"
Second Version: "The Smell of Eucalyptus (#2)"

Unique Variants:
Plate A: "Differentiate" illustrated book cover
Plate A: Untitled, plate 1 of 9, from the illustrated book, "Differentiate"
Plate B: Untitled, plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, "Differentiate"
First version: "Ode to Eugénie Grandet"
First version: "The Sense of Something Missing"
First version: "When I Was Young"
Second version: "A Mirror of Me!!!"
Second version: "Do Not Cut Me Down!"
Third version: Untitled, no. 4 of 5, from the series, "The Vocabulary of Seduction"

The plates were also printed in combination with other plates in multi-panel works. They all include extensive hand additions, and sometimes only minor areas of the plates were inked. These works can be seen below in Related Works in the Catalogue:

"The Geometry of Pleasure (#3)"
"The Geometry of Pleasure (#4)"
"The Geometry of Pleasure (#5)"
“The Geometry of Desire (#1)”

Background:

Benjamin Shiff, the director of the Osiris imprint, collaborated with Bourgeois in a highly experimental phase of printmaking that occupied the last years of her life, from 2005 to 2010. He first established a working relationship with the artist in the 1990s, but the late period is particularly noteworthy for the innovative and complex large-scale projects that evolved at that time. Shiff made use of professional workshops for printing, but he oversaw the creation of the printing plates as Bourgeois worked on them in her home studio. He also provided assistance as she added extensive hand additions and texts, and as she combined individual compositions into multi-panel works and illustrated books.

Osiris put together a grouping of Bourgeois's late, large-scale soft ground etchings under the title "Turning Inwards." Nine sets were announced. Each "Turning Inwards" set is unique, containing a different number of prints. Sets include editioned prints as well as early proofs. Some also have multiple impressions of the same composition, due to differences in inking and wiping.

The "Turning Inwards" sets are not considered formal series that must be shown in their entirety; the prints in each set can be displayed separately.

Set #1 of 9 contains 67 prints and is in the Collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Set #2 contains 43 prints and is in the collection of the Tate Modern. Set #3 contains 38 prints. Set #4 contains 39 prints. The contents of sets #5-9 were not known by MoMA cataloguers, as of 2018.

The title "Turning Inwards" is given to the overall grouping and is also the title of one of the individual compositions within it. Titles that may appear in the various "Turning Inwards" sets are as follows:

1. À Baudelaire
2. Abandoned
3. Accumulations
4. Are You in Orbit? (#1)
5. Are You in Orbit? (#2)
6. The Awakening
7. The Chain of Events
8. The Fall
9. La Famille
10. Les Fleurs
11. I See You!!!
12. Incognito
13. Just Like Me
14. Knots
15. Leaves
16. Let My Children Come
17. Look Up!
18. Losing It
19. Love and Kisses
20. La Maladie de l'Amour
21. My Inner Life
22. My Secret Life
23. The Nest
24. Opening Up
25. The Pacifiers
26. Paddle Woman
27. Passages
28. Pendule
29. The Prey of an Anxiety
30. Sangsue
31. The Smell of Eucalyptus (#1)
32. The Smell of Eucalyptus (#2)
33. The Stretch
34. Swaying
35. Swelling
36. Turning Inwards
37. The Twist
38. The Unfolding
39. Up and Up

This impression is in MoMA's set #1 of 9.

MoMA Credit Line:

Gift of the artist

MoMA Accession Number:

971.2011

This Work in Other Collections:

Tate Modern, London

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY