LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Descriptive Title:

English translation: "The Flowers"

Themes:

Abstraction, Nature

Techniques:

Etching

Description:

Soft ground etching, with gouache, watercolor, pencil, and paper collage additions

Support:

Paper

Dimensions:

plate (in 2 vertical parts) (overall): 60 3/16 × 35 7/16" (152.8 × 90 cm); sheet: 59 5/8 × 39 3/4" (151.4 × 101 cm) (plate dimensions reflect full plate size; this is a partial print)

Signature:

"LB" lower right comp., pencil.

Inscription:

"iris géranium / begonias / narcisse / tulipe" upper left comp., "les les les les les ORCHIDÉES" center comp.; "les muguets / anémones / anémones" center left comp.; "les myosotis" lower left comp.; "lilacs / lilacs / lilacs / les mimosas" lower left comp.; "WISTERIA" lower right comp.; "violettes" lower right comp.; "les roses sauvages" center right comp.; "les les liserons" upper right comp.; "LES ÉGLANTIERS" upper right comp.; "LES MARGUÉRITES" center right comp.; all pencil, all artist's hand.

Publisher:

Osiris, New York

Printer:

Wingate Studio, Hinsdale, NH

Edition:

Unique

Impression:

Not numbered

Edition Information:

This is one of 10 unique variants outside the edition to incorporate this plate, printed alone or in combination with other plates in multi-panel works. All include extensive hand additions and sometimes partial inking of the plate. When the plate is used alone, the work is included in the Evolving Composition Diagram. When it is printed with other plates, it is included in Related Works in the Catalogue.

See Evolving Composition Diagram:
"Les Fleurs (#1)"
"Les Fleurs (#2)"
"Les Fleurs (#3)"
"Les Fleurs (#4)"
"Les Fleurs (#5)"
"Les Fleurs (#6)"
"I Am Still Growing (#1)"
Untitled, no. 2 of 4, from the series, "Start Something!!"

See Related Works in the Catalogue:
"The Geometry of Pleasure (#1)"
"The Geometry of Pleasure (#2)"

About the "Les Fleurs" edition:
Within the edition, selective wiping, sheet size, and orientation vary from impression to impression. Impression nos. 1/9, 2/9, 4/9, 6/9, and 7/9 are oriented in the same direction as the impression of the only state, outside the edition, without hand additions. Impression nos. 3/9, 5/9, 8/9, and 9/9 are oriented in the same direction as the impression of the only state, outside the edition, with hand additions. Both are seen in the Evolving Composition Diagram below.

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

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 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. The plate dimensions are from the impression of the only state, variant, without hand additions in MoMA's Collection. The sheet dimensions were provided by the Louise Bourgeois Studio.

Some petals were cut from a different impression of "Les Fleurs" and collaged on the impression seen here. The collage elements are difficult to detect because they are placed directly on top of the areas from which they were cut.

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY