LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Themes:

Abstraction, Nature

Techniques:

Etching

Description:

Soft ground etching, with selective wiping

Support:

Smooth, thick wove paper

Dimensions:

plate (in 2 vertical parts) (overall): 58 7/8 × 35 9/16" (149.5 × 90.3 cm); sheet: 59 5/8 × 37 13/16" (151.5 × 96 cm)

Signature:

"Louise / Bourgeois / LB" lower right comp., pencil.

Publisher:

Osiris, New York

Printer:

Wingate Studio, Hinsdale, NH

Edition:

9

Impression:

"5/9" lower left comp., pencil, artist's hand.

Edition Information:

Within the edition, selective wiping is consistent from impression to impression. Three impressions (2/9, 3/9, and 4/9) have proofing of the "À Baudelaire" plate on the verso.

Outside the edition, there are 11 unique variants that incorporate this plate, printed alone or in combination with other plates in multi-panel works. These all include extensive hand additions and sometimes partial inking of the plate. When the plate is used alone, the work is included in the Evolving Composition Diagram. When it is printed with other plates, it is included in Related Works in the Catalogue.

See Evolving Composition Diagram:
Untitled, no. 2 of 2, from the series, "What Hurts"
“The Unfolding”
“The Unfolding (#2)”
“The Unfolding (#3)”
“The Unfolding (#4)”
Untitled, no. 5 of 6, from the series, "I Give Everything Away”

See Related Works in the Catalogue:
“À Baudelaire (#1)”
"Love Is As Big As the Sky"
Untitled, no. 3 of 4, from the series, "Have a Little Courage"
“À Baudelaire (#9): The Impossible”
“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.

Curatorial Remarks:

In the center of this composition, there is a small gap between the two vertical parts of the plate. The gap is filled with black watercolor wash, black crayon, and pencil additions to match the surrounding plate tone and create the illusion of a single plate.

MoMA Credit Line:

Gift of the artist

MoMA Accession Number:

94.2012

This Work in Other Collections:

Tate Modern, London

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY