Louise Bourgeois. Institution (1989-1990)

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Louise Bourgeois. Institution. 1989-1990

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Cat. No. 677.2

Institution

State/Variant:: Version 2 of 2, only state
Date:: 1989-1990

Themes:: Architecture, Figures, Nature
Techniques:: Drypoint
Description:: Drypoint
Support:: Smooth, wove Rives BFK paper
Dimensions:: plate: 12 15/16 x 16 7/8" (32.8 x 42.8 cm); sheet: 19 11/16 x 25 7/8" (50 x 65.8 cm)
Signature:: Not signed
Publisher:: unpublished
Printer:: Gravure, New York
Edition:: 7 known impressions of version 2, including 1 with gray chine collé and 2 with gray-brown chine collé
Impression:: Not numbered
Edition Information:: Not issued as a published edition at any state.
State Changes and Additions:: Changes from version 1, in drypoint: composition transferred to a new, slightly larger matrix; cloud moved up, windows added to building, horizon and position of figures slightly altered, hair added to figure third from left.
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.

Bourgeois admired the printing facilities of the Gravure workshop and also felt a personal rapport with the owner and master printer, Guérin. Guérin helped the artist develop plates for several important projects in the early 1990s.
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.)
Curatorial Remarks:: An amendment has been made to the cataloguing of this composition in Wye and Smith, "The Prints of Louise Bourgeois," 1994, p. 174. Engraving has been removed as a technique. In consultation with MoMA conservators, it was established that what appeared to be engraving is actually drypoint.
Former Cat. No.:: W & S 109.2
MoMA Credit Line:: Gift of the artist
MoMA Accession Number:: 530.1993