LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Alternate Title:

Hangings

Themes:

Abstraction, Nature, Objects

Techniques:

Photogravure

Description:

Photogravure

Support:

Smooth, wove paper

Dimensions:

plate: 7 1/16 x 5 1/16" (18 x 12.9 cm); sheet: 14 15/16 x 11" (38 x 28 cm)

Signature:

Not signed

Inscription:

"PROOF I" right lower margin, pencil, unknown hand.

Publisher:

unpublished

Printer:

Iris Editions, New York

Edition:

2 known impressions of version 2

Impression:

Not numbered

Edition Information:

Not issued as a published edition at any state.

State Changes and Additions:

Changes from version 1: composition transferred to new matrix, in photogravure.

Background:

In the early 1990s, Bourgeois worked with the French printer Christian Guérin of Gravure, New York. Bourgeois admired his various-sized printing presses and also felt a personal rapport with him as a printer. Guérin helped the artist develop plates for several important projects at that time.

Artist’s Remarks:

For Bourgeois, this imagery recalled the house she lived in as a child in Antony. "The attic was very large because of the slope of the house. Antique chair frames were hung from the ceiling everywhere. My father collected them. He would take them down from the ceiling very delicately and examine them."
Bourgeois talked about supporting sculptures and different ways of achieving that. If a sculpture is standing and there is "a fear of it falling," it could always be hung from the ceiling instead. "It is a form of reassurance." (Quote cited in Wye, Deborah and Carol Smith. "The Prints of Louise Bourgeois." New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1994, p. 126.)

Curatorial Remarks:

An amendment has been made here to the cataloguing found in Wye and Smith, "The Prints of Louise Bourgeois," 1994, p. 126. At that time, cataloguers were unaware of an earlier state of version 1, which surfaced in 2012. With the discovery of state I, each successive state is later (state I is now state II, state II is now state III, etc.).

In Wye and Smith, "The Prints of Louise Bougreois," 1994, version 2 was possibly attributed to the printer Christian Guérin of Gravure Inc. The printer was later confirmed as Deli Sacilotto of Iris Editions.

Iris Editions was the imprint of Deli Sacilotto, a master printer who specialized in the photogravure technique. Bourgeois met Sacilotto through mutual friends and established a warm relationship with him. They worked together on projects in the early 1980s, and then again later, when Sacilotto joined Graphicstudio in Tampa, Florida and encouraged the artist to create the multiple, “Spider Home” (cat. no. 15).

The impression of version 2 that is not illustrated includes the following inscription: "PROOF II"

Former Cat. No.:

W & S 56

MoMA Credit Line:

Gift of the artist

MoMA Accession Number:

458.1993

This Work in Other Collections:

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (state VI)
The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, The New York Public Library (state III)

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY