LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Themes:

Abstraction, Figures

Techniques:

Etching

Description:

panel (a): Soft ground etching, with hand additions
panel (b): Pencil and mixed media
panel (c): Soft ground etching, with hand additions
panel (d): Pencil and mixed media
panel (e): Soft ground etching, with hand additions
panel (f): Pencil

Support:

Paper

Dimensions:

plate (a): 55 5/16 × 16 1/4" (140.5 × 41.3 cm); plate (c): 54 15/16 × 14 3/16" (139.6 × 36 cm); plate (e): 55 13/16" (141.8 cm); sheet (approx.): 60 × 134" (152.4 × 340.4 cm)

Signature:

panel (a): "Louise Bourgeois" lower right margin, pencil.
panel (c): "Louise Bourgeois" lower right margin, pencil.
panel (e): "LB" lower right comp., pencil.
panel (f): "LB" lower right sheet, pencil.

Inscription:

panel (b): "But I want / to talk about / magic / understanding and intimacy / acceptance and happiness / the eyes of innocent children / a ray of hope" center sheet, pencil, artist's hand.
panel (d): " I saw my / father / the circles / some candies / I am / happy to / remember" center sheet, pencil, artist's hand.
panel (f): "I want / to talk / about / magic / memory / happiness / acceptance" 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 6-panel composition is made up of 3 plates that were issued as separate editions or used for other compositions. They are noted below and can be seen in Related Works in the Catalogue.

panel (a): plate from "Let My Children Come"

panel (c): plate from "The Pacifiers"

panel (e): plate from Untitled (2008)

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 hand additions and paper type 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 an impression in MoMA's Collection. The overall mediums and sheet dimensions for the series were provided by the Louise Bourgeois Studio.

On the text panels (b) and (d), hand additions are applied like correction fluid to cover unwanted marks.

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY