LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Themes:

Abstraction, Fabric Works, Figures, Motherhood & Family, Words

Techniques:

Etching

Description:

panel (a): Soft ground etching, with gouache, watercolor, and pencil additions
panel (b): Text stitched in red thread

Support:

panel (a): Paper
panel (b): 5-part fabric panel

Dimensions:

plate (in 2 vertical parts) (overall): 59 11/16 × 35 9/16" (151.6 × 90.4 cm); sheet and fabric panel (overall): 60 1/8 × 48 1/2" (152.7 × 123.2 cm)

Signature:

panel (a): "LB / LB / Louise Bourgeois" lower left comp., pencil.

Inscription:

panel (a): verso: "mother and daughter Eugénie et sa mère my inner life #5 (Eugénie Grandet) my inner life"

Publisher:

Osiris, New York

Printer:

Wingate Studio, Hinsdale, NH

Edition:

Unique

Impression:

Not numbered

Edition Information:

This is one of 7 unique variants outside the edition to incorporate this plate. They all include extensive hand additions and sometimes partial inking of the plate.

See Evolving Composition Diagram:
"My Inner Life (#1)"
"My Inner Life (#2)"
"My Inner Life (#3): Eugénie Grandet"
"My Inner Life (#5)"
Untitled, no. 1 of 3, from the series, "The Voice Says Yes" (This composition was originally titled "My Inner Life [#4]")
"I Go To Pieces: My Inner Life (#6)"
Untitled, no. 1 of 6, from the series, "I Give Everything Away"

About the "My Inner Life" edition:
Within the edition, selective wiping is consistent from impression to impression. Two impressions (8/9 and 9/9) have proofing of the "My Inner Life" plate on the verso. There is one known proof impression on the verso of "Elle," seen below in Related Works in the Catalogue.

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.

Bourgeois here references "Eugénie Grandet" from a novel by Honoré de Balzac, the plot of which involved the domination of a father over his daughter. Bourgeois identified with the situation. Inspired by an exhibition project for the Maison de Balzac in Paris, Bourgeois created a series of works based on the character Eugénie Grandet. The exhibition “Moi, Eugénie Grandet” took place 11/2/10-2/7/11 and included an accompanying catalogue with an essay by Jean Frémon.

Curatorial Remarks:

The color of hand additions, inscription on the verso, and type of paper could not be fully documented because this impression is not in MoMA’s Collection and could not be examined in person. The plate dimensions are from the impression on paper in MoMA’s Collection. The sheet dimensions were provided by the Louise Bourgeois Studio.

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY