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LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Louise Bourgeois: Complete Books & Prints
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NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION

Cat. No. 1266, in 1258

Untitled, no. 2 of 4, from the series, Have a Little Courage

State/Variant:
Unique variant
Date:
2009
Series:
Have a Little Courage (View All)
Themes:
Abstraction, Fabric Works
Techniques:
Etching
Description:
panel (a): Soft ground etching, with red gouache additions
panel (b): Pencil, with tan gouache (see Curatorial Remarks)
panel (c): Soft ground etching, with red watercolor additions
panel (d): Pencil, with tan gouache
panel (e): Soft ground etching, with red and white gouache, and blue watercolor additions
Support:
panels (a), (c): Fabric
panels (b), (d), (e): Smooth, wove handmade paper
Dimensions:
plate (a): 60 1/4 × 35 11/16" (153.1 × 90.6 cm); plate (c) and (e) (each): 59 7/8 × 16 3/4" (152.1 × 42.6 cm); sheet: 64 3/4 × 129 1/2" (164.5 × 328.9 cm)
Signature:
panel (e): "LB" lower right comp., pencil.
Inscription:
panel (b): "Beheaded / jilted / unprotected" center sheet, pencil, artist's hand.
panel (d): "slipped / and / could not get up." 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 5-panel 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 "The Stretch"
Plate printed twice, once in each orientation.

panels (c) and (e): plate from "Passages"
For panel (c), the plate was lightly inked throughout.
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.
Installation Remarks:
This composition is one of 4 that constitute a single work of art. All of the compositions are to be exhibited together in the indicated sequence.
Curatorial Remarks:
The plate dimensions are from the impressions in MoMA's Collection. The sheet dimensions were provided by the Louise Bourgeois Studio.

On both text panels, tan gouache is applied like a correction fluid to cover unwanted marks.

No. 2 of 4, from the series, Have a Little Courage
2009

Unique Variants

Published NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Louise Bourgeois. Untitled, no. 2 of 4, from the series, Have a Little Courage. 2009
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Unique variant
2009

Series
2009

NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Louise Bourgeois. Have a Little Courage. 2009
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Have a Little Courage
2009
More About This Work

Louise Bourgeois,

Have a Little Courage,

New York, Osiris, 2009

Bourgeois's entire text for this series appears on the panels cited below.

No. 1:
Dizzy
Spells
étourdi

No. 2:
Beheaded
jilted
unprotected

slipped
and
could not get up.

No. 3:
when fear
becomes conscious

No. 4:
Watch out
and
have a little
Courage