LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Themes:

Architecture, Figures, Nature

Techniques:

Drypoint

Description:

Drypoint, with pencil additions

Support:

Smooth, wove paper

Dimensions:

plate: 9 13/16 × 16 15/16" (24.9 × 43 cm); sheet: 20 7/8 x 23 1/2" (53 x 59.7cm)

Signature:

Not signed

Publisher:

unpublished

Printer:

Harlan & Weaver, New York

Edition:

2 known impressions of version 1

Impression:

Not numbered

Edition Information:

Not issued as a published edition at any state.

Background:

Version 1 was developed in conjunction with Judith Solodkin, Solo Press, as supervisor to printers, at the same time as the portfolio project "Anatomy." Bourgeois met Christian Guérin, Gravure Inc., at about this time. In 1990, she enlisted him to assist her in executing and printing version 2.

Artist’s Remarks:

"These are people from the past ... they were so important, I still cannot detach myself. You better pay your debt to the past and then forget it."

Looking at the second version, Bourgeois described the figures: "I am the one close to my parents... I am quite sure of myself with my hair. Pierre is the little, lonely one. Henriette and Georges, my sister and brother-in-law, are there. The figures are in limbo... they roam around together in the shadow... but you can see that all those important to you are there." (Quotes cited in Wye, Deborah and Carol Smith. "The Prints of Louise Bourgeois." New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1994, p. 174.)

Former Cat. No.:

W & S 109.1

MoMA Credit Line:

Gift of the artist

MoMA Accession Number:

529.1993

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY