LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Themes:

Abstraction, Animals & Insects

Techniques:

Aquatint

Description:

Aquatint

Support:

Smooth, wove paper

Dimensions:

plate: 34 7/8 x 31 3/4" (88.6 x 80.7 cm); sheet: 45 3/16 x 34" (114.7 x 86.4 cm)

Signature:

"Louise / Bourgeois" lower right margin, pencil.

Publisher:

Osiris, New York

Printer:

Wingate Studio, Hinsdale, NH

Edition:

9; plus 1 T.P.

Impression:

"7/9" lower left margin, pencil, artist's hand.

Edition Information:

There are 2 known cancellation proofs, each with a large "X" drawn across the composition from each corner of the plate.

There are 2 known unique variants outside the edition that incorporate this plate. They are listed below and included in the Evolving Composition Diagram.

"Essaim"
"The Sky Is Falling"

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.

MoMA Credit Line:

Gift of the artist

MoMA Accession Number:

575.2013

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY