LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Themes:

Abstraction, Nature

Techniques:

Etching

Description:

panel (a): Soft ground etching, with blue and white gouache and watercolor, and pencil additions
panel (b): Pencil

Support:

Smooth, wove handmade paper

Dimensions:

plate (in 2 vertical parts) (overall): 60 1/4 × 31 3/4" (153 × 80.7 cm); sheet: 59 3/4 × 55 3/4" (151.8 × 141.6 cm)

Signature:

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

Inscription:

panel (b): "Watch out / and / have a little / courage" center sheet, pencil, artist's hand.

Publisher:

Osiris, New York

Printer:

Wingate Studio, Hinsdale, NH

Edition:

Unique

Impression:

Not numbered

Edition Information:

This is one of 5 unique variants that incorporate this plate. They all include extensive hand additions and are listed below:

See Evolving Composition Diagram:
"Le Père Déchu"
"Turning Inwards (#1)"
"Le Coeur Est Là (Turning Inwards #2)"
Untitled, no. 4 of 4, from the series, "Have a Little Courage"
Untitled, no. 3 of 3, from the series, "The Voice Says Yes"

About the "Turning Inwards" edition:
Within the edition, selective wiping varies significantly from impression to impression. (See two examples in the Evolving Composition Diagram below.) Paper type varies slightly as well. There is 1 known variant impression of the only state, outside the edition. 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.

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 impression in MoMA's Collection. The sheet dimensions were provided by the Louise Bourgeois Studio.

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY