LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Themes:

Words

Techniques:

Relief

Description:

Relief, from stamped plate

Support:

Thin, laid Japanese paper

Dimensions:

composition: 8 1/4 x 11 5/8" (21 x 29.5 cm); sheet: 12 3/16 x 17 1/16" (31 x 43.4 cm)

Signature:

Not signed

Inscription:

"2" [upside down] lower left margin, pencil, unknown hand.

Publisher:

unpublished

Printer:

The artist

Edition:

4 known variant impressions of version 1

Impression:

Not numbered

Edition Information:

Not issued as a published edition at any state.

Artist’s Remarks:

"When this was done, it was a real exorcism... I didn't hold a grudge. There had been a sharp disappointment." Bourgeois continued, "I think it was that I was not included in a show... I was refused."
Showing some lead sheets like those she used for the matrices of these prints, she remarked, "I love this material... lead... I cut out the shape. I would call the metal letters branding... I used a mallet to bang them. I used it because I wanted to emphasize it. There is branding, rubbing, and stencil here. This is experimental." (Quote cited in Wye, Deborah and Carol Smith. "The Prints of Louise Bourgeois." New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1994, p. 144.)

"The impetus and the violence came from the fact that I was put in a situation of rivalry with a lot of my colleagues. [...] 'Whitney Murders' meant I resented so much the whole thing, because I was not in. You see? That I was ready to murder everybody, right?" (Quote cited in Bourgeois, Louise and Lawrence Rinder. "Louise Bourgeois Drawings and Observations." Berkeley: University Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive University of California, Berkeley; Boston: Bulfinch Press, 1995, pp. 316-317.)

Curatorial Remarks:

This impression is printed in relief on the verso and recto. The print on the verso shows through to the recto.

In Wye and Smith, "The Prints of Louise Bourgeois," 1994, p. 144-147, techniques were catalogued as follows: Versions 1 and 2: lead rubbing; version 3: stencil and rubbing. Actually, the artist's inscription on an impression of version 1 clarifies that she was referring to the method of relief printing in which a spoon is used to apply pressure to the verso of the paper sitting on top of the plate, thus transferring the image without the use of a printing press. This is the technique that was used in the printing of version 1 and 2. In contrast, version 3 includes rubbing (frottage) in the traditional sense.

Former Cat. No.:

W & S 72.4

MoMA Credit Line:

Gift of the artist

MoMA Accession Number:

256.1992.2

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY