LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Themes:

Words

Techniques:

Relief

Description:

Relief, from stamped plate

Support:

Thin, laid Japanese paper

Dimensions:

composition: 10 5/16 x 11 5/8" (26.2 x 29.6 cm); sheet: 12 3/16 x 16 13/16" (31 x 42.7 cm)

Signature:

Not signed

Inscription:

"I" 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unpublished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:

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:

256.1992.3

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY