LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Themes:

Abstraction, Animals & Insects, Fabric Works

Techniques:

Etching

Description:

panel (a): Soft ground etching
panel (b): Soft ground etching
panel (c): Soft ground etching
panel (d): Pencil
panel (e): Soft ground etching, with watercolor and gouache additions

Support:

panel (a): Paper
panel (b): Fabric
panel (c): Paper
panel (d): Paper
panel (e): Fabric

Dimensions:

plate (a and c) (each): 60 5/16 × 12 3/8" (153.2 × 31.5 cm); plate (b): 60 1/4 × 19 3/4" (153 × 50.1 cm); plate (e): 60 1/2 × 14" (153.7 × 35.5 cm); sheet (overall): 60 × 104 1/2" (152.4 × 265.4 cm)

Signature:

panel (e): "LB" right lower margin, stitched in red thread.

Inscription:

panel (d): "I have to know / what's going on / inside of you" upper 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 3 plates that were used in other compositions and issued as a separate edition. They are noted below and can be seen in Related Works in the Catalogue.

panels (a) and (c): plate from "Alone and Together"
For these panels, the plate is in the reverse orientation of the impression of the only state in MoMA's Collection.

panel (b): plate from "The Little Leeches"

panel (e): plate from "Losing It"

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 color of 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 impressions in MoMA's Collection. The overall sheet dimensions were provided by the Louise Bourgeois Studio.

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY