Louise Bourgeois. The Geometry of Pleasure (#3) (2009)

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Louise Bourgeois. The Geometry of Pleasure (#3). 2009

NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION

Cat. No. 735

The Geometry of Pleasure (#3)

State/Variant:: Unique variant
Date:: 2009

Themes:: Abstraction, Nature
Techniques:: Etching
Description:: panel (a): Soft ground etching, with watercolor, gouache, and pencil additions
panel (b): Soft ground etching, with watercolor, gouache, and pencil additions
Support:: Paper (2 attached sheets)
Dimensions:: sheet (overall): 78 × 59 3/4" (198.1 × 151.8 cm)
Signature:: "Louise Bourgeois" lower right comp., pencil; "LB" lower right comp., pencil.
Inscription:: panel (a): "the geometry of pleasure / the geometrie of pleasure" (sic) left middle comp. sideways, pencil, artist's hand.
Publisher:: Osiris, New York
Printer:: Wingate Studio, Hinsdale, NH
Edition:: Unique
Impression:: Not numbered
Edition Information:: This composition is part of a group of multi-panel works with extensive hand additions titled "The Geometry of Pleasure (#1) - (#5)." The other works in this group can be seen below in Related Works in the Catalogue.
State Changes and Additions:: Matrices:
This 2-panel composition is made up of 3 plates that are also used in other compositions.

panel (a): plate from "À Baudelaire" (seen in Related Works in the Catalogue).
For this panel, the plate was partially inked.

panel (b): two untitled plates printed side by side (both seen in Related Works in the Catalogue).
On the left hand side of this panel, only minor areas of Untitled (plate A) were partially inked.
On the right hand side of this panel, only minor areas of Untitled (plate B) were partially inked.
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 wih 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.
Curatorial Remarks:: Plate dimensions are not given due to partial inking. For full plate dimensions, see the respective impressions.

The paper type and color of the hand additions could not be documented because this work is not in MoMA's Collection and could not be examined in person.