
Cat. No. 1269, in 1248
Untitled, no. 2 of 4, from the series, Inner Truths or Outer Truths
- State/Variant:
- Unique variant
- Date:
- 2007
- Series:
- Inner Truths or Outer Truths (View All)
- Themes:
- Abstraction, Fabric Works, Nature
- Techniques:
- Etching
- Description:
- panel (a): Soft ground etching, with hand additions
panel (b): Pencil
panel (c): Soft ground etchings, with hand additions
panel (d): Pencil
panel (e): Soft ground etching, with hand additions - Support:
- panel (a), (b), (d), (e): Paper
panel (c): Fabric mounted on paper - Dimensions:
- plate (a): 55 1/16 × 16 11/16" (139.9 × 42.4 cm); plate (c) (each): 55 3/4 × 12 3/8" (141.6 × 31.5 cm); plate (e): 55 1/2 × 9 13/16" (141 × 25 cm); sheet (approx.): 60 × 94 1/2" (152.4 × 240 cm)
- Signature:
- panel (a): "Louise Bourgeois" lower right margin, pencil.
panel (e): "LB" right lower margin, pencil. - Inscription:
- panel (a): "Pendule" lower middle margin, pencil, artist's hand.
panel (b): "the move forward / and / outward / to grow / over / and cover / to protect / to embrace / to cherish" center sheet, pencil, artist's hand.
panel (d): "is / desire / to move towards / to take hold of / to grasp / to grow / to love" 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 is made up of plates that were issued in 3 separate editions. They are noted below and can be seen in Related Works in the Catalogue.
panel (a): plate from "Pendule"
panel (c): plate from "Accumulations"
There are 2 impressions here, one printed on sheer fabric that is overlaid on one printed on paper.
panel (e): plate from "Leaves" - 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 these compositions are to be exhibited together in the indicated sequence.
- 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.
© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY
No. 2 of 4, from the series, Inner Truths or Outer Truths
2007
Series
2007

2007
Louise Bourgeois,
Inner Truths or Outer Truths,
New York, Osiris, 2007Bourgeois's entire text for this series appears on the panels cited below.
No. 1:
inner
truths
or
outer truths
No. 2:
the move forward
and
outward
to grow
over
and cover
to protect
to embrace
to cherish
is
desire
to move towards
to take hold of
to grasp
to grow
to love
No. 3:
the talker
who
is
+ secretive
the
satisfaction
of
a
job well done!!!
No. 4:
I give
things eternity
I
have come
of
age