
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION
Cat. No. 768
You Touched Me!
- State/Variant:
- Unique variant
- Date:
- 2007
- Themes:
- Abstraction, Motherhood & Family, Nature
- Techniques:
- Etching
- Description:
- panel (a): Soft ground etching, with watercolor, gouache, and ink additions
panel (b): Soft ground etching, with watercolor, gouache, ink, and pencil additions - Support:
- Paper
- Dimensions:
- plate (a) (in 2 vertical parts) (overall): 55 5/16 × 16 3/4" (140.5 × 42.5 cm); plate (b): 55 5/8 × 16 13/16" (141.3 × 42.7 cm); sheet (overall): 59 1/8 × 39" (150.2 × 99.1 cm)
- Signature:
- "Louise Bourgeois" lower right margin, pencil.
- Inscription:
- Verso: "you touched me!" pencil, artist's hand.
- Publisher:
- Osiris, New York
- Printer:
- Wingate Studio, Hinsdale, NH
- Edition:
- Unique
- Impression:
- Not numbered
- State Changes and Additions:
- Matrices:
This composition uses 2 plates that were issued as separate editions. They are listed below and can be seen in Related Works in the Catalogue.
panel (a): plate from "Pendule."
panel (b): plate from "La Famille."
The hand additions obscure the etching, making it impossible to determine if this is an impression of state I, II, or III. - 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.
- Curatorial Remarks:
- The color of the hand additions, paper type, and location of the verso inscription could not be documented because this work is not in MoMA's Collection and could not be examined in person.
© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY