LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Themes:

Objects

Techniques:

Etching

Description:

Soft ground etching, with red and white gouache, red ink, red pencil, and pencil additions

Support:

Paper

Dimensions:

plate: 10 7/8 x 15 1/8" (27.6 x 38.4 cm); sheet: 17 3/8 x 22 1/8" (44.1 x 56.2 cm)

Signature:

"Louise Bourgeois" lower right margin, pencil.

Inscription:

"The Red Shoes" lower left margin, pencil, artist's hand.

Publisher:

Osiris, New York

Printer:

Wingate Studio, Hinsdale, NH

Edition:

9

Impression:

Verso: "Study 5/9"

Edition Information:

The hand additions on this composition vary across the edition. For comparison, see other impressions in the Evolving Composition Diagram below.

In this edition, Bourgeois and the publisher designated each impression as a "study." However, throughout the catalogue, the term "study" describes photocopies and tracings that were used in the process of developing a composition.

Background:

According to Bourgeois's assistant, Jerry Gorovoy, this composition was inspired by Bourgeois's relationship to María Fluxá, a Spanish gallery owner and collector with whom she collaborated on the 1999 illustrated book, "Metamorfosis." The subject matter of that book involves Fluxá's background, including the fact that her father ran an important shoe manufacturing business owned by the family. The book's illustrations include images of shoes and Fluxá also sent Bourgeois a pair of wooden shoe forms. The artist used those wooden forms to inform this composition. It is possible she even traced them, as she sometimes did with various items from around her house.

Curatorial Remarks:

The paper type, and the location and medium of the impression number, are not documented because this work is not in MoMA's Collection and could not be examined in person. The plate dimensions are from the impression in MoMA's Collection. The sheet dimensions were provided by the Louise Bourgeois Studio.

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY