LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Themes:

Abstraction

Techniques:

Etching

Description:

panel (a): Pencil
panel (b): Soft ground etching
panel (c): Pencil
panel (d): Soft ground etching
panel (e): Pencil
panel (f): Soft ground etching
panel (g): Pencil

Support:

Smooth, wove handmade paper (7 attached sheets)

Dimensions:

plate (b): 59 1/8 × 19 9/16" (150.1 × 49.7 cm); plate (d): 59 3/16 × 19 5/16" (150.3 × 49.1 cm); plate (f): 59 7/16 × 19 3/4" (151 × 50.1 cm); sheet (overall): 59 1/2 × 130 1/2" (151.1 × 331.5 cm)

Signature:

panel (g): "LB" right lower sheet, pencil.

Inscription:

panel (a): "The egg / The cartesian / diver" center sheet, pencil, artist's hand.
panel (c): "The / whirligig" center sheet, pencil, artist's hand.
panel (e): "The spin / the skein / the spool / the shuttle" center sheet, pencil, artist's hand.
panel (g): "Euphoria" center sheet, pencil artist's hand.

Publisher:

Osiris, New York

Printer:

Wingate Studio, Hinsdale, NH

Edition:

Unique

Impression:

Not numbered

State Changes and Additions:

Matrices:
This 7-panel composition uses 3 plates that were issued as separate editions. They are listed below and can be seen in Related Works in the Catalogue.

panel (b): plate from "Incognito"

panel (d): plate from "The Chain of Events"
For this unique variant, the plate is in the opposite orientation as the published impression in MoMA's Collection.

panel (f): plate from "The Prey of an Anxiety"
For this unique variant, the plate is in the opposite orientation as the published impression in MoMA's Collection.

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 plate dimensions are from the impressions in MoMA's Collection. The overall sheet dimensions were provided by the Louise Bourgeois Studio.

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY