LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Themes:

Abstraction

Techniques:

Etching

Description:

panel (a): Soft ground etching, with gray watercolor wash and pencil additions
panel (b): Pencil, with tan gouache (see Curatorial Remarks)
panel (c): Soft ground etching, with selective wiping, and red and blue watercolor, white gouache, and pencil additions
panel (d): Soft ground etching, with gray watercolor wash and pencil additions

Support:

Paper

Dimensions:

plate (a and d) (each): 60 3/16 × 15 3/4" (152.8 × 40 cm); plate (c) (in 2 vertical parts) (overall): 58 7/8 × 35 9/16" (149.5 × 90.3 cm); sheet: 59 1/2 × 96 1/4" (151.1 × 244.5 cm)

Signature:

panel (d): "Louise Bourgeois" lower right comp., pencil.

Inscription:

panel (b): "when fear / becomes conscious" 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 4-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 "Knots"
For this panel, the plate is in the reverse orientation of the impressions of the only state in MoMA's Collection.

panel (c): plate from "The Unfolding"

panel (d): plate from "Knots"

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 the text panel, tan gouache is applied like a correction fluid to cover unwanted marks.

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY